AN SNP MSP has said the appointment of former Cardiff manager Malky Mackay to oversee youth football in Scotland following the storm over racist, sexist and homophobic text messages would be "deeply concerning".
Clare Haughey has called on the SFA to rule out the appointment of Mr Mackay as Performance Director, claiming it would send out the wrong messages about bigotry and football.
Mr Mackay has been widely tipped as favourite for the post, with reports the former Scotland international defender impressed at a second Hampden interview with the sport's governing body last week.
In 2014 it was reported that Mr Mackay had sent a series of offensive text messages between to Cardiff’s then head of recruitment Iain Moody. The texts reportedly included racist language used when discussing black and Asian players, anti-semitic and sexist comments about football agents and homophobic comments about a club official and a player.
Ms Haughey, deputy convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, said: “It’s deeply concerning that a former manager who has reportedly made a series of racist, homophobic and sexist comments is being widely tipped as the favourite for a key role in the SFA.
“Such an appointment would risk sending a message that bigotry is no barrier to a top job in Scottish football, a particularly terrible message to send to the young players of tomorrow who would be overseen by the Performance Director.
“Scottish football has made huge efforts to tackle racism and homophobia in the sport and to promote women’s football – valuable steps in making sure that everyone can participate in our national game.
“The SFA should see sense and rule out this appointment."
Originally part of a six-man shortlist, the 44-year-old former Celtic and West Ham defender was expected to go toe to toe for the job this week with Austin MacPhee.
However, Mr MacPhee opted to join the new managerial team at Hearts FC.
Mr Mackay had been expected to become manager of Premier League club Crystal Palace in August 2014 but dropped out of contention after Cardiff City sent a dossier to the Football Association alleging misconduct.
He apologised for writing two messages that he admitted were disrespectful of other cultures, but denied stating anything of a homophobic or sexist nature.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel