Australian News / 02 February 2021
Collingwood vows to boot racist culture
A damning independent report has detailed a culture of “systemic racism” at the Collingwood Football Club that led to complaints from Indigenous and African players being ignored – and worse, being punished for speaking up. After details in the report made it onto the front page of the Herald Sun yesterday (paywall), Magpies president/media personality Eddie McGuire fronted a press conference to say it was “a proud day” for the iconic footy club. Wait, what? They had “decided as a club that this fight against racism and discrimination of all types is where we want to be,” he said. The report’s authors gave Collingwood credit for undertaking the shirtfronting review. But McGuire (who once suggested Sydney legend Adam Goodes promote the ‘King Kong’ musical not long after he’d been called an ‘ape’ by Collingwood supporters) and club administrators have copped criticism for years for not acting on racism claims. That includes complaints from former Magpies defender Heritier Lumumba who is suing over alleged racist abuse from his own team mates. There are calls for McGuire’s resignation, but he says he’ll stick around until the end of the year when he’ll end 22 years in the non-game show related hot seat.
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