THE CHAIRMAN OF WIGAN has defended James McClean after the Ireland player claimed that the FA have done nothing to stop the constant abuse, he and his family have received over the last number of years.
This comes after McClean posted a lengthy Instagram post calling out the FA and his old club Sunderland for not doing enough to tackle the abuse.
Last weekend Wigan Athletic played Sunderland and the fans chanted anti-Irish songs at the 33-year-old.
Wigan chairman Talal Al Hammad posted on social media explaining that the abuse of the Derry native needed to stop.
#wafc pic.twitter.com/YEkd2tmlzZ
— Talal Al Hammad | طلال الحماد (@TalalAlHammad32) October 17, 2022
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As a club, we are doing everything in our power to stop this from happening,” said the Wigan Chairman's Twitter post on Monday morning.
“However, more importantly as adults, this should not be happening. Your behaviour is watched by those younger than you – children, teenagers; the younger generation, and it is a disgraceful demonstration of how one should behave.
“So much emphasis and effort is put into the younger generation and the prevention of bullying. How can we teach our kids not to bully each other at school when adults are doing it themselves?
“Hurting a human emotionally is as equal as hurting them physically. How come physical abuse has consequences but this doesn’t?
“More times than not, action is only taken when it’s too late, when a person has been hurt either by other ‘adults’ or by themselves, after enduring emotional and mental abuse.
“It is shameful and disgusting and needs to stop.”
Last weekend McClean's long social media post went into details of the abuse he's received, his son asking him why they shout abuse at his father, and him not expecting the FA to act on the abuse despite the constant talk of stamping out discrimination in various campaigns.
For my son, who is seven years old and watches every Wigan game - either being at stadium or on Latics TV - to be asking his mother, 'Why are they booing and singing that song at Daddy?' And to have to tip toe around answering him is something which should not be happening," started the social media post.
"This post is not one for sympathy (trust me, it is not wanted) but one of anger. Considering every single year, we have an FA representative come into each club to discuss the same old crap they spew to us about discrimination. Every single year, I challenge them on the abuse. Every single year, they do nothing"
“This clip is one [from] yesterday, which can be heard clearly of one particular chant, as well as other chants of ‘f**k the pope and IRA’, being sung by the majority of the 30k crowd, as well as numerous individual chants of 'fenian bastard, fenian c**t', 'you dirty Irish c**t'," added McClean.
"[This was] while displaying a tribute before game honouring Niall Quinn, who is also the same nationality as myself. Couldn’t make the stupidity up. Now, everyone who attended the game would have heard this loud and clear including the referee, match officials and other officials! I should not have to report every single incident when clearly, they can all hear what I hear, and they should be doing their job by taking action!"
“I would be lying if I was to say I expect anything to be done about this by the FA and EFL (history shows this) but here is ANOTHER CHANCE, sure. And I certainly don’t expect any action to be taken by Sunderland themselves, given they did nothing when I was their player.
“For the uneducated, which will always cling on to a certain picture to justify their argument to say, 'he brings it on himself', this picture, which turned out to be not my best joke, occurred in 2020. Myself as well as my family have been on the end of sickening abuse since November 2012. For those you can’t grasp that, that is eight years of sickening abuse.”
What happens next is anyone's guess, but with Remembrance Sunday, which commemorates the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars just around the corner the story with McClean wil continue to rumble on until something is done.
