Former Cardiff City boss ‘to escape punishment’ over homophobic texts

Former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay is likely to escape punishment from the FA over a string of homophobic texts, according to reports.

Allegations were made in August that the former football boss and his then head of recruitment Iain Moody were involved with a string of racist, homophobic and sexist text messages – one of which allegedly read: “He’s a snake, a gay snake. Not to be trusted.”

Mackay – who departed the team last December – later admitted to sending some of the messages, saying: “Out of 10,000 text messages in and out of someone’s phone, I sent three, and that being the case, looking at them, they are completely unacceptable, inappropriate, and for that and any offence I’ve caused, I sincerely apologise.”

Cardiff City passed the texts over to the Football Association, which has conducted an investigation in to the pair’s conduct at the club.

However, ahead of the FA’s report on the issue, a source told the Telegraph that Mackay and Moody are both likely to escape punishment, as the messages were private correspondence.

An FA spokesperson said: “We cannot comment as the matter is ongoing.”

According to the newspaper, if the FA do drop the case against Mackay and Moody, it is possible that Cardiff City could pursue action against them in the civil courts instead.

The League Managers’ Association (LMA) previously apologised for a statement which referred to the allegations of racism, homophobia and sexism as “friendly text message banter”.