Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

British Soccer Owner Fined $78K for ‘Jews Chase Money’ Jibe

The English Football Association banned the owner of a British soccer club from all soccer-related activities for six weeks over anti-Semitic and racist slurs.

Dave Whelan, who owns the Wigan Athletic Football Club near Manchester, was also fined $78,000 and ordered to participate in an educational program run by the Football Association in the decision announced on Wednesday. He has seven days to appeal the penalty, though the Football Association said in a statement that Whelan accepted the punishment.

In November, Whelan, 78, told the British newspaper The Guardian that “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else.” He also used the term “Chink” to describe a foreign businessman.

He was defending his decision to name Malky Mackay as the club’s manager despite a British Football Association inquiry into Mackay for alleged racism and anti-Semitism in email and text exchanges.

Whelan apologized in an interview with the BBC a day after his remarks were published.

The Football Association’s Independent Regulatory Commission acknowledged that: “Mr. Whelan is not a racist as can be seen from his business life as well as his private life including his support of charities.”

He donated nearly $8,000 to the Brookvale organization for the Mentally Handicapped, a Jewish organization which helps with care for the mentally handicapped.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.