Eddie McGuire Cries Salty White Tears As He Stands Down As Collingwood President
When someone whose TV career spans decades gets made an example of in such a sensational way, it highlights the fact that times are changing.
During a press conference today, Eddie McGuire thanked his two sons and his wife Carla, as he farewelled the club that he has run for the last twenty-three years in tears.
After listing achievements, the club had made in the time he had been in the top seat, he thanked his CEO’s, club referees and players, and went on to say the club is in a better position to move forward without him as President.
Eddie McGuire has been a fixture on Aussie TV screens for over a quarter of a century now, and he has successfully caused endless amounts of controversy in this time.
He’s been called sexist, racist, homophobic and has downplayed his offensive remarks on a number of occasions, calling them “terms of endearment,” or “a slip of the tongue.”
But the Collingwood Football Club president is once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons, this time, in the form of an open letter to the footy club he runs, reiterating his status as a racist.
The letter called for McGuire to stand down immediately, after it says he has demonstrated he is not capable of appropriately responding to formerly documented evidence of racist structures ingrained in the club.
Executives, politicians and athletes made up some of the seventy-five signatures that accompanied the letter, of which half are non-Indigenous.
Victorian Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe is one of the prominent names on the letter and says “Sports clubs and their leaders are meant to be role models in our community. How are we allowing people like Eddie McGuire, in such high positions of power, to continue with his leadership role? Eddie’s got to go.”
The letter slammed the response to the Collingwood Football Club ‘Do Better’ Report, which was Independently commissioned by the club to address cultural shortfalls and claims of
deep-seated racism.
In a press conference following the report’s release, McGuire called it a “proud day” for Collingwood.
Contrary to Indigenous leaders and public figures across the country calling it a mockery to the Black community, in particular to former players and members of the club who have raised issues of racism previously.
Most recent was the experiences of former Collingwood player Heritier Lumumba, that were brought to the light in a now deleted interview. Brazilian born Lumumba, formerly known as Harry O’Brien, claims the club has a culture of racist jokes and says he was nicknamed “Chimp.”
The interview with Studio 10’s Waleed Ali has since been deleted from Youtube.
Since the drama has unfolded, Lumumba has told NITV how he requested to see the results of the report in December last year when it was first released, but was refused. Another request was denied in January this year. Lumumba only saw the results of the report last week after it was leaked to the media.
It’s worth remembering that the latest controversies by McGuire are not isolated, and include:
2008: Made comments about boning presenter Jessica Rowe
2010: He made gay jokes about Olympian Ice Skaters
2011: McGuire called the Victorian Sports Minister a “soccer- loving, Turkish born Mussie” at an AFL meeting and referred to Western Sydney as the “Land of the Falafel.” He said he meant it as a “term of endearment.”
2013: Made a comment on Sydney radio that Adam Goodes should be used to promote the movie King Kong. This was just DAYS after Goodes had been racially abused on the field and called an ape. He called this a “slip of the tongue.” Goodes said it ruined their friendship.
He also mocked Goodes for the war cry he did saying “We’ve never seen that before and I don’t think we ever want to see it again to be perfectly honest, regardless of what it is.”
2019: He mocked double amputee Cynthia Banham when she did the pre-game coin toss. Cynthia lost both of her legs in a plane crash which killed 21 people.
Labor MP Peter Khalil wrote an article on racism at Collingwood and said he was patronised if he dared to call it out.
When someone whose TV career spans decades gets made an example of in such a sensational way, it highlights the fact that times are changing.
We’ve come a long way. We still have a long way to go.