Call made for Jonjo Shelvey to apologise after details of abuse towards Wolves' Romain Saiss revealed

Three Wolves players - Dominic Iorfa, Matt Doherty and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson - all told an FA hearing that Shelvey used derogatory racist language towards Saiss.

It was concluded that an "ill-tempered outburst of offensive language" contained the term "Arab" or "Arabic" towards the Moroccan midfielder.

Shelvey has been banned for five matches, fined £100,000 and been told to go on an FA education course.

And now Kick It Out chairman Lord Herman Ouseley has called for an apology so that the matter can be put to bed.

He said: "To bring closure to this incident so all parties can move on and to send out the right message, we hope both Newcastle United and Shelvey issue a public apology to the player concerned and his club, so that everyone can look forward to the remainder of the season.

"One such instance of discrimination involving players in the professional game is too many and shows there's still work to do in tackling discrimination in football.

"We hope the FA's education course benefits the player and teaches him about what is and isn't acceptable language to use.

"Kick It Out has been in contact with Newcastle United to offer support and will continue to liaise with the club, who have demonstrated their commitment to equality and inclusion by achieving the Preliminary level of the Premier League's Equality Standard.

"The organisation has also offered support to the Wolves player concerned and will be available for any ongoing support as well."

In a statement issued on Thursday, Shelvey strongly maintained that he did not use the alleged language, but decided not to appeal his punishment.

Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez offered his full support to Shelvey on Friday. He admitted his player had made a 'mistake' but that his punishment was still too harsh.

"As we've already said in our statement, we support him because for me it was a very confused situation," Benitez said.

"The main thing is he knows that he has to be careful in the future and just concentrate on his football.

"Strange things happen on the pitch and everyone is referring to this issue but we continue to support him - we don't support him in the way (of the alleged language) but that he was making a mistake.

"We know that maybe he made a mistake but what people say he said, maybe he didn't say, so it is very confused. What we have to do is move on and start thinking about the future.

"We know what they said, we know what we said and how things have come out, but it is still very confused.

"He knows he made a mistake but at the same time we think it is a big punishment for him and for us."