Former Cardiff City defender, Jack Simpson has been hit with a fine and multi-game ban for using racist language towards a team-mate.
The former Bournemouth and Rangers was handed an £8,000 fine – plus an additional £1,000 in costs and hearing fees – and six-game suspension for calling a former team-mate a ‘P***’.
The 26-year-old admitted to charges of breaching FA Rule E3.1 – using abusive and/or improper language to a team-mate – as well as Rule E3.2, which includes and reference made towards a player’s race and/or colour.
While at the Bluebirds, Simpson was part of a touring party in Portugal in July 2023 when players were given the night off to ‘enjoy some drinks’ after a friendly clash with Portuguese giants Porto.
However, after the players went down to breakfast the following day ahead of their return home, having gone out into Vilamoura the night prior, Simpson called Luthra ‘a dirty P***’ as the latter approached his table.
An FA Regulatory Commission report tells that a ‘hurt and angered’ Luthra told Simpson he was ‘out of order’, before walking away and calling him a racist, and refusing to talk to him.
The use of the racial slur was reportedly corroborated by fellow team-mates Keiron Evans and Rubin Colwill who were at the table at the time.
Evans added that while he and Simpson were at the airport, the defender told him he was apologetic and wanted to talk to Luthra, claiming: ‘I’m so stupid. I don’t know why I said that. My girlfriend is from that country as well.’
The incident was not reported until four days later following a presentation on FA Rules and Regulations at Cardiff City, with Simpson attending fact-finding hearings at the club on August 15.
Simpson is thought to have claimed he did not remember making the comment due to alcohol intoxication, but accepted the fact that he must have done so, with the matter reported to the FA.
Defender Simpson’s contract was then terminated ‘by mutual agreement’ on August 31, despite still having a year left on the deal he had signed on his arrival from Rangers in 2022.
The report also tells that Simpson had sought to apologise a number of times to Luthra, but the latter has not accepted the apologies – although the FA have concluded that the sentiment is genuine from the defender.
In a statement of his own, simpson wrote: ‘Regardless of what is going to happen after, once we get to the disciplinary, I would still like the opportunity to apologise just because it is the right thing to do.
‘I am definitely not a racist, but I still said it and I know how much hurt that must have caused him and is causing him.’
He also added: ‘I was so embarrassed and ashamed by what Rubin told me I had said to Rohan. I am not a racist person so I couldn’t believe I had said something like that.’
Luthra is still at the Welsh outfit, but is on loan with non-League club Slough, with his Bluebirds contract up at the end of the season.
