Odisha FC have announced the departure of head coach Stuart Baxter following his comments trivialising rape in the post-match interview last night.
In the post-match interview following their 0-1 loss against Jamshedpur FC, Baxter lamented about the standard of refereeing in the ISL and came up with this belittling analogy:
The club distanced themselves from Baxter’s comments and issued a statement:
Odisha FC announced the head coach’s departure this afternoon:
There were suggestions that the coach was on his way out anyway with Odisha FC rooted to the bottom of the table with one win in 14 games and with only six games left in the season. The club owner Rohan Sharma tweeted in response to it.
The former South African National Team coach Stuart Baxter was originally signed on a one-year contract with an option to extend by another year by Odisha FC ahead of the start of the 2020-21 ISL season.
UPDATE
Stuart Baxter has released a statement after his sacking by Odisha FC.
It must be clear and simple that I distance myself from any sympathetic position on the gender based crimes and violence. I find that abhorrent. My comments, though wholly inappropriate and misplaced, are also out of context.
I was searching for the words and I got it wrong. But people that know me know that getting it wrong does not reflect any of my views as a father, grandfather, a citizen and a husband. There’s never been any sort of suspicion that I am not wholly against violence towards females. It would be cowardly, I think it is despicable and I have always made my views known.
This is not who I am, and anybody that knows, me knows who I am.
When you lose a job, that’s a job. But what people think of you is important to me. The biggest pain I am feeling now is that I have not spoken in the way that reflects how I feel, and therefore people are questioning me.
That hurts – more than losing my job.
Stuart Baxter to Siya Crew
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