10 Biggest Premier League Controversies
8. Malky Mackay's "Friendly Banter"
The Background:
Malky Mackay is one of the Premier League's most highly rated young managers. It's the summer of 2014 and he has been strongly linked to the vacant managerial position at Crystal Palace.
Mackay had lost his previous job at Cardiff City, despite getting them to the League Cup final and promotion to the Premier League, after falling out with controversial owner Vincent Tan (not a popular figure with Bluebirds fans after changing the club's blue shirts to red).
Tan's issues with Mackay exceeding his transfer budget had led to the firing of Mackay's head of recruitment, Iain Moody, who Tan had replaced with a 23-year-old work experience kid. Moody took a job at Crystal Palace where he was implicated in a "spygate" scandal around using his connections at Cardiff to find out the Welsh club's lineup ahead of their game with Palace.
The Controversy:
Mackay appears likely to use his connection with Moody to join him at Selhurst Park. Most observers see Tan as the bad guy in his relationship with Mackay, so the manager has received little blame for the end of his Cardiff career.
Then someone at Cardiff leaks a heap of text exchanges between Moody and Mackay.
Mackay had said that he was "not taking no for an answer from the ch*nk", referring to the Malaysian Tan, while he responded to the signing of Korean winger Kim Bo-Kyung with "fkn ch*nkys... There's enough dogs in Cardiff for us all to go around," in just a couple of examples of a litany of sexist, racist, anti-semitic and homophobic texts.
The Aftermath:
The League Managers Association attempt to defend Mackay by calling his texts "friendly banter", but that just causes criticism to come down on them as well.
Crystal Palace fire Moody and cease their interest in Mackay, appointing former boss Neil Warnock instead. The FA eventually decide not to bring charges against either Mackay or Moody, but Mackay never manages in the Premier League again.
Cardiff are relegated the following season and their red shirts revert to blue.