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| - The head of the Collingwood Australian Rules football club faced calls to quit Tuesday over his "delusional" response to a report detailing systemic racism at one of the country's largest sporting bodies. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire -- who is also a high-profile sports commentator and television personality -- on Monday denied the report's core finding that discrimination was present at all levels of the club. Critics, including victims of racism involving Collingwood and its fans, said McGuire should resign immediately over his ham-fisted handling of the issue. "I don't think he gets it, Eddie's got to go," Indigenous Greens senator Lidia Thorpe told Melbourne radio. Collingwood commissioned an independent probe by Aboriginal academic Larissa Behrendt last year after former player Heritier Lumumba complained of facing racism while at the club, including being nicknamed "chimp". Lumumba said he had been vindicated by the damning report, which described the club's culture as more toxic and harmful than any other in the Australian Football League (AFL), the country's most popular spectator sport. He blasted Collingwood and McGuire for trying to put a positive spin on the report when it was released Monday, rather than expressing sincere remorse for the damage done. "What I saw yesterday was a clear case of cowardice, it was a clear case of a football club that was delusional," the Rio-born ex-player told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "What I saw yesterday was a club desperate in its damage control and it was completely tone deaf to where the world is at right now." Lumumba was scathing of McGuire, who said the report's release was "an historic and proud day" for Collingwood because it showed the club was taking action against racism. "(That) was offensive to me and no doubt others like me who have endured racism at the club," he told Guardian Australia. "This could have been a historic moment for the club to deal with systemic racism, but it just looks like business as usual." McGuire announced in December that he would leave Collingwood at the end of the 2021 season after 22 years at the helm but Lumumba urged his to bring forward his departure. McGuire's denials of racism drew a withering response from Nicky Winmar, an Indigenous former player who famously responded to abuse from Collingwood supporters in 1993 by lifting his shirt and defiantly pointing to his skin. "That is an exact definition of systemic racism," he said. Winmar told Melbourne's Herald Sun: "I made my comment that day in 1993. My response to racism was to stand tall and say that I'm black and I'm proud. I still stand by it." AFL pundits have also condemned McGuire, with various publications describing his remarks as "Trumpian", "defensive" and "shameful". ns/arb/dh
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