The Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan has risked further outrage among ethnic communities by referring to the Chinese as “chingalings”.
In what was supposed to be an apology to the Jewish community, Whelan gave an interview in which he sought to limit the damage caused by a piece in the Guardian in which he said he believed that “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else”.
At the time Whelan was trying to qualify the appointment of Malky Mackay as Wigan’s manager, despite Mackay being under investigation by the Football Association for alleged racism and antisemitism over email and text exchanges while in charge of Cardiff City, one of which apparently described the Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan as “a chink”.
Whelan had defended the use of the term to the Guardian, saying: “If any Englishman said he has never called a Chinaman a chink he is lying. There is nothing bad about doing that. It is like calling the British Brits, or the Irish paddies.” The comment was instantly condemned by the Chinese community as being an insult and racist.
Following the comments the FA charged him with breaching its rule against improper conduct and bringing the game into disrepute; on Thursday it granted him an extra week to provide a response.
In the meantime he has risked digging a deeper hole for himself by telling the Jewish Telegraph: “When I was growing up we used to call the Chinese ‘chingalings’. We weren’t being disrespected [sic]. We used to say: ‘We’re going to eat in chingalings.’
“The Chinese weren’t offended by that. That was the name everyone in Wigan called [the first Chinese cafe in Wigan].”
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/05/dave-whelan-wigan-chinese-chingalings
