Odisha FC today terminated the contract of its Head Coach Stuart Baxter with immediate effect. “Interim coach for the remainder of the season will be announced soon,’’ the Bhubaneswar-based football club announced in a short press release.

Though the club did not mention any reason, the sacking of the English coach seemed inevitable for the distasteful comments he made yesterday in the post-match interview after Odisha FC suffered their eighth defeat, going down to Jamshedpur FC 1-0 in their 14th match of the 7th Indian Super League (ISL) in Bambolim, Goa.

Odisha FC had a late penalty claim when Diego Mauricio was tripped in the area by TP Rehenesh but the referee turned down the appeal. Baxter sparked the outrage in the post-match interview, suggesting that one of his players ‘got to rape someone’ or ‘get raped’ in order to be awarded a penalty by the officials.

Embarassed by the comments of Baxter, Odisha FC soon released statement on Twitter saying, “The Club is appalled at the comments made by Head Coach, Stuart Baxter during the post-match interview today. It is completely unacceptable whatever the context and does not reflect the values of the club.”

“We, at Odisha FC, unreservedly apologize and the club management will handle this matter internally,” they said in another tweet. After condemning the comments of the Head Coach, the club axed him today as criticism poured in from all quarters.

A beleaguered Odisha FC now languishes at the bottom of the ISL table with eight points from 14 games. They have won just one match so far, while losing eight and drawing five.