Former England striker Stan Collymore has described the League Managers' Association's statement which says Malky Mackay's offensive text messages were part of some "friendly banter" as being "f****** disgraceful".
The LMA released a statement on behalf of former Cardiff manager Mackay on Thursday night after the 42-year-old Scot and Iain Moody were alleged to have shared racist, sexist and homophobic texts when they worked together at the Welsh club.
In the statement Mackay apologised for sending messages he admits were ''disrespectful of other cultures'', but he said he would fully co-operate with any official investigation after Cardiff sent a dossier to the Football Association detailing a number of issues during his stay in south Wales.
Mackay and Moody were sacked last season and the Welsh club have sent a dossier to the Football Association alleging misconduct.
The statement said that Mackay had been under pressure at the time of the messages and that he was " letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter".
The fallout to the statement has not been a favourable one and former Liverpool man Collymore - a prominent anti-racism campaigner - does not believe the LMA's stance is good enough.
He said on Twitter: "LMA statement. F****** disgraceful. Institutional acceptance of the "banter" of casual racism."
He does feel Mackay deserves a second chance, though, adding: "Always kind to me, hope he says sorry (if true), and moves on."
Another former player who has worked closely on eliminating discrimination, Jason Roberts, tweeted excerpts from the LMA's statement and then said: "That's it..I'm done for the evening..The LMA said it better than I ever could.. They are actually being serious! Somebody drafted that..WOW!"
The LMA statement added: ''If Malky has caused any offence by these two isolated matters he would wish to sincerely apologise.''
The LMA claims the club searched more than 10,000 private text messages and found two from Mackay that were ''with the benefit of hindsight, very regrettable and disrespectful of other cultures.
''These were...sent in private at a time Malky felt under great pressure and when he was letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter.
''The LMA does not condone in any way any potential breach of equal opportunities laws but would also point out that out of over 10,000 text messages and 70,000 documents produced over a long period of time it may not be a complete surprise that some inappropriate comments can sometimes be made by employees, like Malky, working under great pressure in highly charged situations.''
However, Mackay was said to be ''very concerned about seriously inaccurate and misleading reports'' in the media.
The statement continued: ''It has never been alleged that he wrote any homophobic or sexist messages and he has confirmed he did not do so.
''Further, there are incorrect and damaging suggestions that he sent a whole host of offensive and unpleasant messages that are simply not true and which give a grossly distorted and unfair view of Malky's involvement in this matter.
''Malky finds it strange that these matters were only raised with the FA and in the media now, eight months after his employment ended and the day before he was reported as being offered the opportunity to become manager of Crystal Palace FC.
''Malky cannot of course comment on the nature of any conduct or communications alleged to have been made by others.
''Malky has said that he will be fully co-operating with any FA investigation and that he looks forward to putting the record straight thereafter.''
Press Association Sport understands Cardiff's sending of the dossier to the FA was not deliberately timed to have any effect on Mackay's candidacy for the Palace job.
Meanwhile, Moody resigned as sporting director of the south London club on Thursday.
Cardiff are due to hold a routine pre-match press conference on Friday morning where manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer will be asked about the allegations.
Source: PA
