Brendan Rodgers in ‘good girl’ row with BBC reporter: People are trying to bring me down

Brendan Rodgers has defended himself against accusations of sexism, saying that society is now looking to “find something that is offensive”, after he shut down questions from a female reporter before calling her “good girl”.

The Celtic manager ended a post-match interview with the BBC’s Jane Lewis when she asked him to elaborate on comments made after his side’s last-gasp Scottish Premiership win at Motherwell.

Lewis had since said that she did not believe that any offence was intended by Rodgers and that she was not offended but his behaviour drew criticism from women’s groups.

The Scottish Feminist Network said that it “thought dinosaurs were extinct” in reference to the former Liverpool manager while For Women Scotland accused Rodgers of “casual sexism” and said that he should apologise.

Rodgers was unhappy that it had become such a controversy. “I have spoken to Jane,” he said. “She wasn’t offended. We had a laugh about it, she will continue to ask me awkward questions, I’m sure. But I see her every week and we have good relations, like I have with most people in my life, whether that’s professional or social.

“Sadly for me, in society now, we are either looking to offend or find something that is offensive to try and pin on to people.

“I find it saddening as much as anything because, one, I am not that type of person, I can never be that, it’s not how I’m built. But also it saddened me for society now because people are just trying to find ways to somehow bring you down if they can. It’s not nice.”

Rodgers appeared irked after it took stoppage-time goals from substitutes Adam Idah and Luis Palma to secure a 3-1 win against Motherwell that keeps Celtic within two points of Glasgow Rangers at the top of the table.

“There’s a story being written about this group, but we will write our own story,” Rodgers told Lewis afterwards.

Lewis then said: “You don’t want to give us a bit more insight into what you mean by that?”, to which Rodgers retorted: “You know exactly what I mean.”

Lewis replied: “I’m actually not sure I do know exactly what you mean. Can you tell us? People might be interested to know.”

Rodgers then interrupted, saying, “No, no, no”, before Lewis added: “But you’re the one that’s bringing that up, so can you not give us some more on it?”

Ending the interview, Rodgers said: “Okay? Done. Good girl. Well done.”

The Scottish Feminist Network said “that the go-to attitude of a manager of a winning team was condescension is quite illuminating but really very depressing in 2024”.