Ex-Cardiff manager cleared by English FA

In recent years, through the cases against Luis Suárez, John Terry, Nicolas Anelka, Whelan and others, the FA has undoubtedly shown it has markedly changed in its attitudes and preparedness to act on racist incidents, and Mackay and Moody have not been left lightly investigated.

In a statement, the FA wrote: “Having assessed the evidence, and in light of the finding that the communications were sent with a legitimate expectation of privacy, The FA will not be taking disciplinary action against Iain Moody and Malky Mackay in connection with the content of those messages”.

The instinctive, natural reaction to the Football Association announcement that it will not be charging Malky Mackay or Iain Moody over their foul, shockingly racist text exchanges is to deride the FA – once again – as useless, a bunch of blazers out of touch with modernity.

But both men have been spoken to “about the inappropriateness of terms used in the messages”, with Mackay voluntarily taking a course teaching about equality in the game. The outcome of the FA’s investigation in this case, after such an exhaustive process lasting nearly a whole year, will empower these individuals.

Both subsequently lost their jobs, Mackay getting the sack in December 2013 just six months after leading the club to the Premier League. To date, the governing body said that it has not brought “charges in respect of private communications”.

The FA said Oyston had sent “abusive and insulting text messages” to Seasiders fan Stephen Smith in November 2014, which emerged in the public domain one month later.

Anti-racism campaign group Kick It Out launched a stinging attack on the FA and insisted the pair should have faced punishment once the messages were out in the open.

Despite taking no action whatsoever, the FA claimed: “The English game remains determined to eliminate discriminatory conduct in all its forms”.

There is no reason to doubt that the FA did, as it has stated, follow leads, and interview Mackay and Moody at length, as well as 27 potential witnesses in the United Kingdom and overseas. At this stage no disciplinary charges will be brought against either Malky Mackay or Iain Moody in respect of their conduct whilst they were employed by Cardiff City FC.

The statement continued: “The FA has continued to maintain a distinction between public and private communications”.

“The nature of these concerns, which the FA treats with the utmost seriousness, has necessitated significant further inquiries by the FA and the liaison with external law enforcement agencies”, it said. However, the investigation has been lengthened considerably due to serious concerns about the circumstances in which particular evidence provided to The FA had been given and the reliability and completeness of that evidence.

Given the virulent, blatant racism in the Mackay and Moody exchanges, the FA decided not to surrender, and to stretch its investigation as it indicated, into the culture Mackay, pictured right, particularly, as the manager, ran at Cardiff, to see if it was discriminatory.

No. The club say they have no comment to make on the matter but owner Vincent Tan has not tended to stay silent on the issue for too long.