Very difficult one. I mean, people should have the right to defend themselves. Suspending a player for an abuse allegation makes them look guilty in the eyes of the public, and there’s little way back for them.
Antony is an example. I believe two of the charges have been dropped, and the third is potentially looking like it should be. Yet he’s still treated as a violent rapist by fans.
Don’t take this as me defending a United player because I’m a United fan. If you offered me £20m for Antony today, I’d sell him. I think he’s awful.
I don’t know what the answer is here. I appreciate not enough is done to support victims of such attacks, and the courts are so bad at dealing with them. But the alternative where we must simply believe an accuser without question doesn’t seem right either.
I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to resolve the issue with sex crime allegations. Not many will provide evidence on a plate like Greenwood.
I’m surprised they go as far as to specify it’s a premier league manager; if it’s investigations from the 90s by the police that implies they’ve been in England a long time which really narrows down who it could be.
Thomas Partey is such scum. I hate that he is part of my club. The fact that there’s two more women who have now come forward… awful, awful man.
wtf ever happen to the thomas partey’s case? like it has been a year plus and the investigation is still on going ? what the fuck are they doing? at least give us an update
They never got enough evidence to be able to charge him. It’s still technically under investigation and it’ll never be officially “dropped” but I think it’s all but over at this point.
In footballing terms only, that’s the part I have trouble with. I think he probably did it because I believe the women, and I really want him out of the club, but I’m never sure what a club should do in these situations. If they suspended him the second the accusations came forward, he would have been out of the club for a year and a half now with no end in sight. If the investigation is never dropped, but the police don’t have enough evidence to charge or drop (at this point), is his career over? Should it be the same for just some random guy that works at a Tesco in Mansfield? He’s not allowed to work until the investigation is dropped?
Updating the public is irrelevant. The accused, the victim and just judicial system don’t care if the general public feel uninformed on progress and nor should they
This is incorrect. One of the most quoted phrases in case law goes something like “Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done.” (Rex v Sussex Justices)
The judicial system has a duty not only to be just, but also to demonstrate to the public at large that it is being just. That’s why even if no wrongdoing has occurred, if there’s a way people might think it has occurred, the justice system has failed.
Yes, because they have contracts which require specific performance, until proven guilty.
No they don’t? You can suspend players after an accusation, like United did with Greenwood. Especially if 5 people are making an accusation with the police investigating.
A contract doesn’t mean teams are forced to pay players.
The article mentions comparisons to the overarching policies the NFL and MLB have that allow the bodies to investigate regardless of whether the case has gone through the justice system. Is there something in UK law that would prevent the FA/PL from putting something like that into place? While I’m in no ways claiming that those policies are anywhere close to the effectiveness needed (look at the Texans and Deshaun Watson), it’s kind of crazy that a woman tried to report an assault to the FA and they sent her their guidelines…which apply to coaching minors, not reporting sexual violence.
who’s player X? it sounds like partey but it seems to imply the case is more recent than his?
Going off on a tangent, probably. But I’m all for punishing anybody regardless of status if they’re guilty as long as the women who falsely accuse get equally punished.
How are you gonna prove that they were false accusations?
That’s not my job. There have already been cases where the women have been find to be lying so in those instances I’d like to see them get punished. But I guess you guys are ok with women lying.
I mean we can’t have it both ways. Footballers can be absolute wankers and treat people badly. 100%. But they are also easy targets. Do we want to live in a world whereby at best your career is halted and worst destroyed by unproven allegations?
I know there are blurred lines. The Greenwood situation for example. Whereby you have some pretty damning things that are made public, and then it’s a bit of a moral/PR conundrum.
For me though, innocent until proven guilty. Or we decent into chaos.
I don’t think it’s that simple.
I think 3.2% of sexual assault cases lead to a conviction.
The way the law works, you only need to prove reasonable doubt which is incredible easy when consent is a concept.
They estimated 85,000 women a year are raped or sexually assaulted. 2022 there were 2,223 charges of rape.
There does seem to be a priority to protect innocent men against potentially malicious allegations, over prosecuting rapists and reducing the number of women being raped.
If you remove or erode the social unacceptability of rape and sexual assault, that’s also incredible detrimental.
To me, it does seem more likely a women isn’t lying than is & knowing that it’s hard to prove, I do still think there needs to be some action.
I’d like to see a campaign or something by the league. Creating a bit of a dialogue about sexual assault.
It’s why I think a stronger female presence in the game is so important. We need more women’s voices in the game
Innocent until proven guilty means that you don’t get locked up for life without proving that you committed a crime in court. It doesn’t mean you get to be on TV every weekend.
OK, so when you get investigated for something, that you are then not guilty for, do you get all of the losses back? Reputational damage back? You have to draw the line somewhere and I think the law is a sensible place. If you are sidelined you are by extension assumed guilty and that is extraordinarily damaging. It’s not right for those who are not guilty.
No you or I would end up in a massive hole financially most likely. But they will be fine because they’re incredibly wealthy and despite what everyone says the almost immediately find a club to take them.
That’s absurd.
The if player X is the ‘Premier League footballer, arrested in North London’ that everyone is aware of then surely there’s enough evidence to charge him? This article states there were witnesses! How has he not been charged yet?!
This thread needs a dishonorable mention of Boateng, who assaulted and abused his gf. The media went on a campaign saying she was lying, she was stalked and harassed and eventually ended up taking her own life.
It’s absolutely mental that Bayern Munich even remotely considered letting him back in the squad and that it took considerable pressure to block it from the fans.