Football boss under investigation for homophobic texts gets job interview at Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic is interviewing former Cardiff boss Malky Mackay for its manager position – despite an ongoing FA investigation over an alleged string of homophobic texts.

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.”

Despite an ongoing FA investigation, Mackay has now applied for the vacant manager position at Championship team Wigan Athletic.

The team’s chairman Dave Whelan confirmed Mackay would get an interview for the job, saying: “I can confirm Malky Mackay has applied and we will speak to him. I believe he deserves a fair hearing.

“We’ve had over 20 applications and started interviews on Tuesday. Hopefully we can make an appointment before the game this weekend against Middlesbrough.

“It’s an important job and I don’t like to mess around when I think I’ve got the right person.”

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”.