Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out, has slammed the actions of Ian Moody and Malky Mackay and has labelled the beautiful game as “tainted” as the Football Association started an investigation into the pair’s time at Cardiff.

Moody yesterday resigned as sporting director of Crystal Palace after the FA were sent a dossier by Cardiff owner Vincent Tan on Wednesday night, which alleges misconduct by Moody during his time as head of recruitment at the club and Mackay as manager.

Mackay, who had been close to becoming Palace’s new boss following the exit of Tony Pulis last week, is being accused of exchanging homophobic, sexist and racist texts with the former Palace director as well as the rest of the squad, while they worked together at the Welsh club.