The questions sponsors should be asking Collingwood after racism report

A former AFL marketing manager says sponsors will be asking Collingwood Football Club some serious questions after revelations that an independent report has found “systemic racism” in the club.

But he doesn’t think sponsors should withdraw their involvement with the club.

Business and economics professor at the University of Melbourne, and former AFL marketing manager, Colin McLeod, says he expects sponsors will want to meet with the writers of the report to learn as much as they can about the situation.

“They’ve had two reconciliation action plans which I think detailed about 25 different actions, including issues around corporate governance, and they appear not to have worked,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“I think the very first thing you want to know is: Why didn’t it work? What are you doing to fix it? What are you doing to educate people? What are the processes in place?”

But Professor McLeod says sponsors shouldn’t pull their involvement with the club.

“I think if I was a corporate I’d also be saying to Collingwood, look, we’re a large organisation, we’ve had lots of experience with this very same issue. Can we help?’,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s much point in sort of saying to Collingwood, ‘Well, fix it or we’re out’. This has to be fixed.”

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Neil Mitchell: What must happen at Collingwood now that ‘systemic racism’ has been revealed

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