He’s back. Not very slim but definitely shady.
Big bad Malky Mackay is back in football. Homophobes, racists and sexists rejoice. It’s coming up for the ten-year anniversary of the former Celtic and Norwich City defender finding his career thrown into disarray as text messages sent during his spell as Cardiff City manager were leaked to the public.
Before we go any further, let’s remind ourselves of some of the lowlights of these text messages.
“Not many white faces amongst that lot but worth considering.”
“I hope she’s looking after your needs. I bet you’d love a bounce on her falsies.”
“Fkn chinkys.” “Fk it. There’s enough dogs in Cardiff for us all to go around.”
“Go on, fat Phil. Nothing like a Jew that sees money slipping through his fingers.”
“He’s a snake, a gay snake. Not to be trusted.”
Now I’m no fan of Hibernian Football Club, but I love football, and I love Scottish football. That this man is employed in our top flight once again is an insult. An insult to fans of Hibs. An insult to any groups of people who he cruelly insulted a decade ago. An insult to the integrity of our game.
Mackay has apologised. He claims he has reformed. He may well have. He talks a good game but come on, Malky, give it up. You’ve done a bad thing, you’ve been caught, red handed. You’re hated by people up and down the country for what you’ve done. Just walk away from football.
My problem, aside from the obvious text messages, is the on-going nature of the old boys club. He’s part of the ‘Celtic family’. He’s an experienced pair of hands. He’s been there, he’s done that. Excuses are made for him time and time again and it just doesn’t sit right. There are a thousand aspiring coaches, managers and footballing professionals up and down the country, desperate for a paid gig in football, and every time a has-been villain like Mackay gets employed, it’s an opportunity that isn’t going to someone young, hungry and eager to make a difference.
This article isn’t meant to be an assassination job on Mackay. I’m not the moral ruler of right and wrong. I can’t say whether his public apologies are heartfelt or said with fingers crossed on both hands. I’m sure I myself have said some questionable things in the past. He wasn’t technically convicted, neither by a court of law, nor by the FA in England.
This also isn’t an article lamenting Hibs in particular, no more so than Ross County and the Scottish FA before them, and Wigan years before. People make decisions and that’s fair. I’m not angry at these associations, I’m disappointed.
People deserve second chances. I’m an advocate for prisoners being rehabilitated and put back into job roles after being locked up. Being a football manager or director isn’t a normal job. Working in football is a privilege and people like Mackay being given the honour of working in this industry is just galling. Is there a path to redemption? For me, I don’t think so. But it can happen.
Boxing expert Richard Poxon appeared on the radio show Capital Sports 3.0 with Alan Moore last year, and came out with some insightful comments on how to deal with people who have committed hate crimes and similar. He insisted that the only way to really deal with the racists of the world isn’t to ban or ‘cancel’ them. It isn’t to fine them. No bullshit apology of empty words. No, the answer is inherently more human.
The answer is to put them in a room with the person that they offended. In a room with their friends, their family. Make the instigator explain their comments, defend them if that’s what they need to do. Then listen. Listen to the impact it has. If they have even a shred of human decency then they’ll see first-hand what damage their words have had, and if they can’t see that then they are well and truly a lost cause.
If Mackay, rather than going through the usual rigmarole of a public apology was to go directly to the people he himself insulted, belittled and degraded then perhaps there is hope. Perhaps he can continue to work in football, a truly reformed man. Until then though, I see no real hope.
Every time a club gives someone like Mackay another chance without real repercussions and reparations, it sends a message. It says that being part of the football family goes beyond morals. When Wigan hired Mackay, it sent a message. Sponsors abandoned the club. There was outcry. When he joined the SFA there was huge outcry north of the border, but it died down eventually, as it did when Ross County hired him, and as it eventually will with Hibs.
With Hibs, they’ve had a masterclass in timing with this decision. The fans are angry at the underperformance of the team. The ire of this appointment, which has received significant backlash already, will fade away with the weekend results. Then there are a couple months off for the summer when he wont be at the forefront. Then the new season will start, and before long it’ll be a memory. People may be angered, but not in numbers, not enough to make a difference.
He will continue to take on a lovely big paycheque while you and I, the average reader, struggle to pay bills. The fans, the good guys, we suffer, while people who have been publicly shamed for their abhorrent thoughts and opinions take on steady wages like this. It’s wrong. And it won’t change until people like this are out of our game.
We talk a lot about mental health and respecting people in life. It’s great, really it is. I’m glad that we, as a society, aren’t sending Malky to the wolves. He takes verbal abuse at games, but by and large it is words. Sticks and stones etc. But what about the mental health of Kim Bo-Kyung, the Korean player referenced in the third text above. What about agent Phil Smith, or ‘fat Phil’ as he is referred to by text. The unnamed female agent in text two? What about their mental health? What about valuing them?
Every time Malky Mackay is accepted in football, he wins and they lose. And it happens time and time again.
Heart of Football 
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