Eddie McGuire vows to stand firm despite racism findings

Collingwood has vowed to implement all 18 recommendations from a damning report that found the AFL club guilty of “systemic racism” and urged significant changes to ensure it eliminates that toxic culture.

Long-standing Magpies president Eddie McGuire on Monday acknowledged calls for him to step down immediately after the report was made public, but declared its findings had only strengthened his resolve to see out his planned final year at the helm.

The independent report found racism at Collingwood had resulted in “profound and enduring harm” to First Nations and African players, and that the club’s response has been “at best ineffective or at worst exacerbated the impact of the racist incidents”.

Some of the racist incidents highlighted in the report, which was triggered last year by a series of claims made by 2010 premiership player Heritier Lumumba, involved McGuire or occurred under his watch as Collingwood president.

McGuire admitted the club had “got things wrong” in the past and said it will learn from its mistakes.

“I don’t think there’s any shame or disappointment in what’s going on here,” McGuire said.

“This is a day of pride … this club is standing for something significant in this area and is actually putting in place the mechanisms to make a difference.”

Lumumba commented via Twitter late on Monday night, describing Collingwood’s press conference as a “bizarre response” to the report and slamming McGuire’s attitude towards its findings.

“The report clearly states that during Eddie’s tenure as CFC president, the club’s racism resulted in ‘profound and enduring harm’ to many individuals, families, & communities,” Lumumba tweeted.

“It was disturbing to see how easily Eddie and the CFC board members reduced the severity of this ‘profound and enduring harm’ to mere ‘mishaps’ – as if they were talking about spilling tea on a couch rather than being found guilty of years of systemic racism.”

Lumumba said he intended to address the media about the report on Tuesday.

The AFL confirmed it had received a copy of the independent report on Monday and would review the information before considering what steps, if any, it should take.

“The mistakes of the past show that racism in any form or on any level is a serious issue and should not be interpreted in any other way,” AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said.

“This report is an important step in the change Collingwood is implementing and demonstrates the seriousness in which the club takes the issue.”

The report found there had been a consistent pattern of Collingwood failing to adequately address racist incidents and an absence of internal avenues for reporting racism in the club until very recently.

It also found a “genuine acknowledgement of past failures and a strong desire to do better” within Collingwood, which has already taken some positive steps in recent years.

The new recommendations include changes to governance procedures to ensure accountability and consequences for acts of racism within the club, and that Collingwood should develop a strategy to address and reconcile past acts of racism.

The independent review conducted by Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt and Professor Lindon Coombes, from the University of Technology Sydney, included 30 interviews.

Lumumba chose not to participate.

The former player has previously claimed he was nicknamed “chimp” and that a culture of racist behaviour existed during his time at Collingwood, spanning 10 seasons from 2005-14 before he finished his career at Melbourne.

The report’s authors said there needed to be a serious investigation into Lumumba’s claims, with his participation.