Dave Whelan has been accused of antisemitism after the Wigan Athletic owner told the Guardian he believes “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else”.

A Chinese community leader, Jenny Wong, also said Whelan was condoning racism by saying it is “nothing” to call a Chinese person a “chink”.

The comments came on the day one of Wigan’s shirt sponsors, the kitchen appliances firm Premier Range, announced it was ending its agreement with the club, describing its position as “untenable”. They were followed by another sponsor, the energy drinks firm Ipro.

Whelan was explaining his appointment on Wednesday of Malky Mackay as Wigan’s manager, despite Mackay being under investigation by the Football Association for alleged racism and antisemitism over his email and text exchanges while in charge of Cardiff City with Cardiff’s former head of recruitment Iain Moody.

The three texts or emails Mackay had sent, Whelan said, included one describing the Cardiff City owner, the Malaysian Vincent Tan, as a chink. In another, Mackay referred to the Jewish football agent, Phil Smith, saying: “Nothing like a Jew that sees money slipping through his fingers.”

Whelan said he saw neither as offensive, nor did he consider offensive the other text for which he said Mackay was responsible, which referred to there being “enough dogs in Cardiff for us all to go round”, when Mackay signed the South Korea international Kim Bo-kyung.

Whelan said he does not believe the reference to Smith is offensive, first explaining he believed Mackay was only reflecting that Jewish people “love money” like everybody does. “The Jews don’t like losing money. Nobody likes losing money,” Whelan told the Guardian.

Asked whether he did not think what Mackay said was offensive, because the claim Jews “love money” has been used as a negative stereotype, Whelan said: “Do you think Jewish people chase money a little bit more than we do? I think they are very shrewd people.”

Asked if he himself believed that, Whelan, the 77-year-old multimillionaire and former owner of JJB Sports, said: “I think Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else. I don’t think that’s offensive at all.”

Whelan said he did not think there was “a lot wrong” with anything Mackay said, and there was no malice or disrespect in the statement about Smith. He added: “It’s telling the truth. Jewish people love money, English people love money; we all love money.” His remarks were condemned by Simon Johnson, a former FA and Premier League executive who is Jewish and is the chief executive at the Jewish Leadership Council.

“Unfortunately Mr Mackay and now Mr Whelan have referred to some of the worst old-fashioned tropes which have been used in the past as the basis of antisemitism and stereotyping of Jewish people,” he said. “Mackay used offensive language to insult a fellow participant in football using a tawdry racial stereotype.” Whelan said “we’re all against racism in football,” and that it was right that Mackay has attended diversity education courses since his acrimonious exit from Cardiff.

However, he said the word chink is not offensive, and that he used to say it of Chinese people when he was young. “If any Englishman said he has never called a Chinaman a chink he is lying,” Whelan said. “There is nothing bad about doing that. It is like calling the British Brits, or the Irish paddies.” Wong, director of the Manchester Chinese Centre an organisation devoted to Chinese community cultural understanding, said chink “is an insult, racist”.

“I remember at school in the 70s a skinhead kicking me, calling me ‘chinky, chinky,’” Wong said. “It has stopped now; things have changed for the better. We have legal protection against racism and that is important; it is not political correctness. As a football manager, this man should not have said it.”

Whelan later said that if anyone had been offended by his comments “to please accept my sincere apology”. He added: “I would never insult a Jewish person. I have got hundreds and hundreds of Jewish friends.” He told Sky News: “I’ve got loads of Chinese friends and I would never, ever insult the Chinese.”

Whelan also told the Guardian he has been advised by two “influential” people at the top of the FA that “nothing will come” from the investigation into Mackay over the text messages when he was at Cardiff City, largely because the exchanges were in private communications, which the FA chairman Greg Dyke has previously said are beyond the organisation’s disciplinary processes. The FA said: “No assurances have been given as to the outcome of this case.”

Earlier in the day Premier Range became the first of the sponsors to pull out, before Whelan had made his remarks, saying: “The texts Mr Mackay has admitted to sending are wholly unacceptable – and the thoughts expressed within them are a shocking reminder of a past we thought football had left behind. A team that would employ a man who expresses views such as these is not the kind of team Premier Range wish to deal with.”

Ipro said after Whelan’s comments it “actively encourages positive working relationships that are not based on colour, race, nationality, religious belief, sexual orientation or age and cannot condone racism, sexism or homophobia. As a result, it is with deep regret that Ipro Sport will be severing its relationship with Wigan Athletic.”