A series of racist, homophobic and sexist text messages by Malky Mackay and Iain Moody were submitted to the Football Association this week by Cardiff City.

But the League Managers’ Association risked exacerbating an already fraught situation when it put out a statement defending Mackay, admitting the existence of questionable text messages but claiming that he “was letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter.”

The LMA said in their statement: “In the course of a search by the club in early 2014 of 10,000 private text messages sent to and from another member of staff during Mr Mackay’s employment at Cardiff, in relation to other matters, it emerged that Malky had, it seems, sent a couple of one-line texts that were, with the benefit of hindsight, very regrettable and disrespectful of other cultures.

“These were two text messages 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. That said, Malky believes he could and should have conducted himself better on these two isolated occasions. If Malky has caused any offence by these two isolated matters he would, however, wish to sincerely apologise.”