Skip to content

Sky Bet Championship: Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan in new race controversy

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan and manager Malky Mackay
Image: Dave Whelan: Fresh criticism for Wigan chairman

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has caused more controversy with remarks he made in an interview with the Jewish Telegraph.

The 78-year-old could face fresh sanctions after he was quoted using an offensive word to describe his local Chinese restaurant in the interview, in which he apologised for offending the Jewish community. 

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Wigan owner Dave Whelan has caused more controversy.

Whelan has been given until December 12 to respond to a Football Association misconduct charge over earlier remarks he made about Jewish and Chinese people in a newspaper interview where he was trying to defend the appointment of Malky Mackay as the club's new manager.

Mackay himself is also the subject of an FA investigation into allegedly racist text messages he sent during his time at Cardiff. Both men deny being racist.

The FA has said it is now looking into Whelan's latest comments. 

These new comments have already been condemned by the British Chinese Project - an organisation which gives the Chinese community a voice in the UK.

Spokesman Michael Wilkes said: "Once again, Mr Whelan, rather distressingly, believes he can speak on behalf of Chinese people.

His (Whelan's) comments are extremely unhelpful in our fight to end discrimination and racism against Chinese people in the UK.
British Chinese Project spokesman Michael Wilkes

"His comments are extremely unhelpful in our fight to end discrimination and racism against Chinese people in the UK. Once more, he is using a public platform to tell a wide audience what Chinese people find offensive."

Meanwhile, Wigan have warned supporters not to use racist, sexist or homophobic language during Saturday's Championship match against Norwich.

A Latics statement released on Friday afternoon warned that anyone caught swearing or using discriminatory language at the DW Stadium on Saturday would be ejected and possibly subject to further sanctions.

"Wigan Athletic are reminding supporters that it is illegal to swear or use racist, homophobic or sexist language," the statement read.

"The club has a zero tolerance on this and any supporter found to be using inappropriate language runs the risk of being ejected from the match, with further sanctions being available depending on the severity of the case."

The club said that anyone witnessing behaviour of this sort should report it in confidence to the DW Stadium incident report text line.

Around Sky