Sheffield Wednesday Football Club

• Nickname:The Owls
• Founded:1867
• Manager:Dave Jones

• Ground:Hillsborough
• Capacity:39859

Owls director steps down

08 Jan 2008 - 17:59:43

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Sheffield Wednesday director Keith Addy has quit the club after admitting to making a racially offensive remark in a telephone call.

The 72-year-old made the comment to a member of staff at the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In a statement on the Owls' official website, Addy said: "I can confirm that with great sadness I have decided to stand down as a non-executive director of Sheffield Wednesday FC with immediate effect.

"It is my belief that not doing so would have had a detrimental effect upon a club which I love and which I will continue to support in whatever way I can.

"My resignation follows a remark I made in November last year to a member of staff at the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"This remark, directed not at the employee but at a public agency, used a term which I now realise was racially offensive and wholly inappropriate.

"However, it was not intended as a racial slur but was stated in the heat of the moment at a time of stress and out of frustration.

"It was however a vestige of language which is no longer used in a multi-cultural society and this has been a harsh lesson to me that many terms society may once have used are no longer, and should no longer be, part of our language.

"I would like to make a full and frank apology to the employee who the comment was made to and anyone who may have felt let down by the behaviour I unwittingly displayed."