ISL team Odisha FC sack coach Baxter for rape comment
KOLKATA: Odisha FC have sacked head coach Stuart Baxter for making “unacceptable” comments referencing rape in a postmatch interview in Goa. Baxter, 67, made the comments after the cellar lost 0-1 to Jamshedpur FC.
Baxter, who was previously South Africa’s head coach, said that one of his players “would have to rape someone or get raped himself if he was going to get a penalty.” The comment sparked a furore on social media forcing the franchise to issue an apology on Monday. Odisha FC said they were “appalled at the comments”, which were “unacceptable whatever the context.” On Tuesday, the club announced that Baxter, under whom South Africa beat hosts Egypt in the 2019 African Cup of Nations pre-quarter final, had been sacked. “The interim coach for the remainder of the season will be announced soon,” bottom-placed Odisha FC said on Twitter. The club made it clear that Baxter’s sacking had nothing to do with the team’s form.
Baxter took charge in June on a two-year contract. Odisha FC have one win, eight defeats and five draws so far. Crucially, Odisha FC have not got a penalty in 14 games of ISL7. The incident Baxter was referring to came late in the game when Diego Maricio was deemed to be fouled by Jamshedpur FC goalie TP Rehenesh.
Late on Tuesday, Baxter apologised for his comments to a media outlet in South Africa where he has coached top team Kaiser Chiefs to league and cup double. “I distance myself from any sympathetic position on gender based crimes and violence. My comments, though wholly inappropriate and misplaced, are also out of context,” soccerladzuma.co.za quoted him as saying. Baxter said he couldn’t find the appropriate words and things got muddled. “People that know me know that getting it wrong does not reflect any of my views as a father, grandfather, a citizen and 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 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,” the Briton added.
Baxter was one of the three English coaches in ISL7; the others being Owen Coyle at Jamshedopur FC and Robbie Fowler at SC East Bengal.