A women’s group has described Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers’ comments to a female journalist as “demeaning” and warned they could encourage similar behaviour from football fans.
During a BBC Sportsound radio interview following Sunday’s 3-1 win against Motherwell, Mr Rodgers was heard saying “good girl” following a line of questioning from the broadcaster’s reporter Jane Lewis.
The Scottish Feminist Network and For Women Scotland have urged Mr Rodgers to explain the comment, which has been labelled as “casual sexism”.
On the Sunday programme, Ms Lewis asked the Celtic boss to elaborate on the Cinch Premiership title race after he said: “The story has already been written about this group. But we will write our own story.”
She said: “Can you give us a bit more – you don’t want to give us a bit more insight into that and what you mean?”
He replied: “No, no, you know exactly what I mean”, with the journalist replying: “I’m actually not sure exactly what you mean.”
He then appeared to wrap up the interview by saying: “Done, good girl, well done.”
Ms Lewis has not commented on the remarks and the PA news agency has asked the BBC and Celtic FC to respond.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Feminist Network said: “Rodgers’ throwaway comment encourages other football fans to behave in a similar way, demeaning women they work with or engage with.
“It has to stop.
“Jane Lewis was just doing her job, trying to extract an explanation from Brendan Rodgers on his cryptic comment.
“That the go-to attitude of a manager of a winning team was condescension is quite illuminating but really very depressing in 2024. We thought dinosaurs were extinct.”
A spokeswoman at For Women Scotland said: “It’s depressing that casual sexism is still embedded in sport.
“Women’s achievements are underrated and dismissed, and their professional status undermined. Rodgers owes the reporter an apology.”
