ANGE POSTECOGLOU hopes the fallout from the Scottish Football Writers Association annual awards will be a catalyst for change moving forward.
The SFWA apologised after an after-dinner speaker made offensive jokes that led to guests, including sports broadcaster Eilidh Barbour, walking out during its annual dinner.
Barbour declared she had “never felt so unwelcome” in her industry while another guest revealed she had walked out following “sexist and racist jokes”.
The SFWA promised a review of the event, which was attended by award winners including Celtic manager Postecoglou, Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon and former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who received a lifetime achievement award at the dinner in Glasgow on Sunday night.
Reacting to the backlash from the evening, Postecoglou said: “For me, the key thing to come out of that is that you can treat it as a little bit of a controversy, or you can treat it as a moment where you can be better.
“We are constantly looking for these moments where we can all be better in terms of what we do and the way we approach things.
“We’ve got to understand that there are people in that room who have different values, different views, irrespective of that, there is an opportunity there for us to learn.
“The organisers have come out and apologised, I don’t think they did it with any harmful intent but if they just focus on the controversy and try to put it to one side then there is a failure there.
“In that space, we shouldn’t really be having those kind of moments, people should already know.
“But in the place of a misstep, what you want to do is be better the next time.”
