Soccer

Cardiff City call on LMA chief Richard Bevan to resign

Club ‘compelled to respond’ to ‘reprehensible’ statement defending Mackay

Cardiff City chairman Vincent Tan (left) and former manager Malky Mackay before their relationship soured. Photograph: PA Wire.
Cardiff City chairman Vincent Tan (left) and former manager Malky Mackay before their relationship soured. Photograph: PA Wire.
Fri Aug 22 2014 - 14:38

Cardiff City have called on the League Managers' Association chief executive Richard Bevan to resign following his body's "reprehensible" statement defending Malky Mackay.

The club's former manager on Thursday apologised for sending text messages that were "disrespectful of other cultures" following a day in which the FA launched an investigation into allegations of serious misconduct by him and his former technical director Iain Moody.

The allegations of racist, homophobic and sexist messages, along with information about transfers at Cardiff, were sent to the FA in a dossier compiled by the club's owner Vincent Tan, prompting Moody to resign as Crystal Palace's sporting director. The LMA exacerbated the issue in a statement on Thursday night by explaining Mackay "was letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter".

That statement has since been removed from the LMA’s website, while the organisation attempted to clarify the situation on Friday morning and apologise for “trivialising” serious issues. However, Cardiff say they feel “compelled to respond” with the body now “complicit” in the affair and insist Bevan’s position is now untenable.

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In a statement released on Friday lunchtime, Cardiff wrote: “The LMA is the representative voice of managers, and whilst we understand it seeks to act in the best interests of its members, one of its major aims is to ‘encourage honourable practice, conduct and courtesy in all professional activity’. Regrettably, we feel that the LMA has done no such thing in its representation of Mr Mackay and Mr Moody. That the LMA has sought to criticise the club for the timing of the report to the FA is preposterous, because the offensive communications have been in the knowledge and possession of the LMA for many months.

“When the messages came to light, over three months ago, the club strongly encouraged and advised Mr Moody and Mr Mackay to deal with the issue directly with the FA. It was made clear to them, and their LMA appointed lawyers, that the nature of the communications meant the club was under a duty to report their findings to the FA if they did not take appropriate action themselves. Nevertheless, with the backing of the LMA, Mr Moody and Mr Mackay chose to do nothing. The LMA was therefore complicit in the attempt to conceal these messages (of which there were many more than the two isolated texts acknowledged by Mr Mackay).”

The statement added: “We also point out that the LMA members have a ‘code of conduct’ incorporated into their managerial contracts. One of the requirements is ‘a manager shall not use racist or other discriminatory language. A manager’s behaviour should demonstrate to players and other employees under his control that discrimination in any form is unacceptable.’ We therefore find it entirely reprehensible that the LMA should itself put out a statement which seeks to dismiss deeply offensive racist comments as ‘friendly banter’.

“If that is the view held by the LMA, as appears from its statement, we consider that Richard Bevan’s position is untenable and we call for his resignation.”