Club president Eddie McGuire has labelled this "a historic and proud day for the Collingwood Football Club" in the wake of the release of a report which found the club was guilty of "distinct and egregious" systemic racism and called for sweeping structural change.
Key points:
- Eddie McGuire says Collingwood will "strive to be better" after the release of a report detailing systemic racism at the club
- The report found the club guilty of "egregious" structural racism
- McGuire said it was a "day of pride" for the club, as it provides community leadership "as only Collingwood can"
The report, which was commissioned independently by Collingwood, said there was a gap between what the club "stands for and what it does" and found its processes for dealing with internal reports of racism were inadequate.
"We have spent the last six years in a deep dive into how we can make ourselves better, provide leadership and conversation in the community as only Collingwood can," McGuire said.
"We have decided as a club that this fight against racism and discrimination is where we want to be.
"We make mistakes, we learn, we strive to be better.
"We commissioned this report not to pay lip services to a worldwide tragedy, but to lay the foundations for our game, our people and our community."
The report said Collingwood was more likely to react to media coverage of a racist incident, for the purpose of damage control, than to a complaint made from within the club.
Collingwood received the report in December last year but had not made any comment on it until it was leaked by the media on Monday morning.
McGuire said the club had planned this week to meet again with the report's authors, and the club "would have liked to take a little more time" to prepare further announcements about the processes it was putting in place.
Chief executive Mark Anderson said there was a plan to "implement this in a good and thoughtful way" and there was "an absolute commitment to get this right."
"This is not criticism, this is a review," McGuire said.
"It's very strong because we asked the organisation to go as hard as they possibly could to give us the base to build the future of this club.
"We wanted to seize the moment, to look at what is happening in world affairs over the last 12 months and to put ourselves in front of things."
'We're not a racist club'
Peter Murphy, one of the members of Collingwood's integrity committee, said the references in the report to systemic racism were in relation to the processes the club had in place to deal with complaints in the past.
"When [the report authors] refer to systemic racism … it is a review of our processes, procedures and systems," Murphy said.
"What they found was that we tend to respond to each incident individually.
"The recommendation coming from the report is to improve our systems, processes and policies for how we respond more collectively as an organisation.
"I don't think that would be unique to Collingwood. It's not unique to Australia, it's not unique to football."
Anderson said the review commenced "well before" the court process began with Héritier Lumumba, who McGuire said had been "encouraged and asked to be a part of the report" but who he said had declined.
"We'd love to sit down with Héritier," McGuire said.
"He's one of our guys. He doesn't feel that at the moment, it breaks our heart. We want him to be one of us. We want to show everybody that this is what we're all about.
"We're a club that tries to do well. We make mistakes … but what we want to do more than anything is to put arms around and take the heat out of this constant race debate.
"If it means that we have to put ourselves up and cop some whacks across the journey, so be it, because we think it's so important."
McGuire said he would not stand down from his post early, and would see out his final year as president of Collingwood.
"The report is an acknowledgement that our club, our game and our country, have got things wrong," McGuire said.
"For our part, we have always sought to do our best but, looking back, we now know that wasn't always good enough, and for that we're sorry and we pledge to do better."
'If that's not criticism of the football club and the way they have handled things in the past, I'm not sure what is
'It's time for Eddie to walk away'
Former Collingwood player and ABC commentator Tony Armstrong said the press conference was not "handled as best it could have" and criticised the message McGuire and the Collingwood board were trying to represent.
"Clearly we've seen the things that were said in the report," Armstrong said.
"They said the club is egregious and distinct in its systemic racism.
Armstrong also said dealing with the report should have been at the "top of the agenda" when the Collingwood board returned after Christmas and the club was wrong to wait until the report was leaked before responding.
"This is something they should have absolutely been on the front foot with, and continue to be on the front foot with," he said.
Armstrong said he did not experience any racism during his time at the club between 2014 and 2015, but, based on the accusations made by Lumumba, it was clear "stuff is not right within that football club and clearly it's systemic".
"I think today, whilst they didn't deal with it as best they could have, hopefully they take what's in the report and use it to make good positive change," he said.
Supporters group Collingwood Fans Care member Toby Hemingway led the calls for McGuire to resign.
"Honestly, it's time for Eddie to walk away," Hemingway told ABC News.
"He needs to accept this is outside of his abilities. He has a lot of abilities, I don't think managing issues of race is one of them."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTAyLTAxL2VkZGllLW1jZ3VpcmUtY29sbGluZ3dvb2QtcmVwb3J0LXJhY2lzbS1kYXktb2YtcHJpZGUvMTMxMDg5ODDSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTMxMDg5ODA?oc=5
2021-02-01 05:03:00Z
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