Collingwood’s 35-page independent report into racism at the club has found “systemic racism within the Collingwood Football Club that must be addressed if things are to change”, according to the Herald Sun.
The report, conducted by Professor Larissa Behrendt and Professor Lindon Coombes, concluded “Collingwood has become synonymous with off-field and on-field racism in Australian sport”.
The review was brought on by the club following a series of claims by former defender Heritier Lumumba.
Tim Watson believes the report’s findings are “damning about the leadership” of the club.
“All this comes back to the leadership of the Collingwood Football Club, particularly its board,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.
Garry Lyon wonders whether Lumumba would now feel vindicated, given the findings.
“Does Heritier Lumumba feel vindicated this morning?” Lyon asked on SEN Breakfast.
“A lot of these things that have been reported on now, as a result of this independent review, are the things that he has been rallying against for a long time – ‘No one’s listening to me, I’ve made these claims, I’ve gone to the top, I’ve been swept under the carpet, I’ve been patted on the head’ – ‘Yeah, okay, we’ll look into it, we’ll look into it’. And yet he claims that they haven’t been.
“That’s what seems to have been vindicated here.”
Lumumba is yet to publicly comment on the report's release.