December 31, 2014 - 7:42 AM
LONDON - Wigan chairman Dave Whelan was banned from all football-related activities for six weeks on Wednesday over offensive comments about Jews and Chinese people.
The 78-year-old Whelan, who accepted an English Football Association charge of racially-aggravated misconduct, has also been fined 50,000 pounds ($78,000), warned about his future conduct and ordered to undertake a mandatory education course.
"It is clear that he himself is very upset by the words he used and he moved very quickly to apologize publicly, plead guilty and begin to make amends," the FA commission report said in an excerpt released by Wigan.
Whelan has seven days to accept or appeal against the sanction, which would be suspended until after the outcome of an appeal process. The ban would begin immediately if he decides to accept the punishment.
The offensive comments were made in a newspaper interview defending his decision in November to appoint Malky Mackay as the second-tier club's manager.
Mackay himself is still being investigated by the FA over a dossier of alleged racist and anti-Semitic text exchanges with a colleague while managing Cardiff. Mackay acknowledged the leaked exchanges were "completely unacceptable, inappropriate," and the League Managers Association said they were "disrespectful of other cultures."
Commenting on a text about Jewish people and money, Whelan told The Guardian newspaper: "I think Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else. I don't think that's offensive at all."
Whelan also said there was "nothing bad" about one of Mackay's alleged exchanges featuring a term widely perceived as being insulting toward Chinese people.
Whelan is a former footballer who was forced to retire early because of injury and then started amassing wealth through a chain of supermarkets and sports stores, enabling him to finance the purchase of Wigan.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014