Brendan Rodgers accused of 'casual sexism' and told to apologise after comment to BBC reporter

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been told to apologise to a female BBC reporter after a comment directed towards her on Sunday.

Former Liverpool and Leicester boss Rodgers was speaking after Celtic's 3-1 win over Motherwell, which took the Scottish giants level on points with Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.

After the match, he was interviewed by BBC reporter Jane Lewis as part of the afternoon's Sportsound coverage for BBC Radio Scotland.

Speaking about the victory, Rodgers said: "The win was important for us, psychologically and for our football.

"It was another game to convince that, when we play how we can play, then the goals and creativity will be there."

But the Irishman then added: "So I'm delighted for the players because, like I've said, there's a story been written about this group, so we will write our own story."

Lewis then pressed Rodgers to elaborate on what he meant by his 'there's a story been written' remark, to which he responded: "No, no, you know exactly what I mean."

Lewis then asked again, suggesting that viewers who didn't know might be interested to know what Rodgers meant, to which the Celtic boss snapped back: "No. Are we done? Good girl, well done."

Now, Scottish campaign group For Women Scotland have called on Rodgers to apologise for his remark, and have accused him of 'casual sexism'.

In a statement, they 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."

The Scottish Feminist Network said: "Jane Lewis was just doing her job today, 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."

SPORTbible has contacted Celtic Football Club for further comment.