Big piece on Lubala in The Athletic

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Posting on behalf of SEX:

In a Brighton courtroom, Beryly Lubala faced his moment of truth. After less than two hours of deliberation, the members of the jury returned and a verdict was imminent.

“My solicitor told me to pack a tracksuit in case I was found guilty,” he recalls. “It was a tracksuit, sliders, boxer shorts, a toothbrush; the most simple things. As they gave the verdict, I was holding this bag. I knew I could be walking to the right; down the stairs and in a van to prison.”

Instead, Lubala headed left, out of the courtroom, a free man once more.

In the viewing areas, court reporters noted some of his family members gasped with relief, while others gently sobbed after Lubala received a unanimous not guilty verdict after successfully defending himself against an allegation of rape.

Lubala, 24, is a Congolese midfielder contracted to Championship club Blackpool but currently on loan at Northampton Town, who are in the League Two play-off places.

His first appearance for Northampton, on February 1, came five days after the trial ended. It was his first competitive football match for more than 11 months.

Two years and four months earlier, police first knocked on Lubala’s door, shortly after 10pm on September 26, 2019, to inform the then-Crawley Town footballer he had been accused of raping a young woman. She was 18 years old at the time of the alleged incident and Lubala then 21. The complainant’s anonymity is protected by law.

 

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Speaking publicly for the first time since the trial, Lubala tells The Athletic about his experiences as a footballer accused, and cleared, of rape. He does so at his family home, sitting beside his girlfriend, whom he started dating after the allegations were made, and their baby daughter.

Lubala details lessons that can be learnt by other young footballers and also outlines a notable victory that he secured against his own club, when Blackpool sought to terminate his contract upon learning he had been charged with rape by the Crown Prosecution Service. The club argued he had been dishonest in concealing the allegations and, initially, the charge from them as his employers, while he says he acted on legal advice.

In between, he briefly swapped life as an EFL footballer for night shifts packing boxes in an Amazon warehouse.

After that, as he awaited trial, Blackpool imposed a string of safeguarding restrictions upon him, which he says included a prohibition from showering after training sessions and requiring a chaperone to ensure he was never in a one-on-one scenario in the club’s canteen, offices or gym.

“If I wasn’t as strong-minded in how I think, this could easily make people go underwater,” he says.

Earlier that September, Lubala, who had scored in six of Crawley’s opening eight league matches of the season, won the League Two player of the month award for August.

After teenage trials at hometown club Leicester City, Lubala had played locally for Sunday League sides Leicester Nirvana and Friar Lane. Spotted as a 16-year-old in a trial fixture, Birmingham City took him on and when he impressed first in training and then in an under-18s game against Crystal Palace, he received a two-year scholarship.

“It was obviously the best thing that’s ever happened to me — to go from Sunday League to a scholarship in three or four weeks,” Lubala says. He rose into the first-team squad, training with players such as now Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder Jude Bellingham and Che Adams, now of Southampton and Scotland, before departing in the summer of 2019 to join Crawley.

Having seen little game time at Birmingham, his career took off at the fourth-tier side: “I’m thinking, ‘This is my chance’. I’m playing games, scoring goals, I’m ambitious, working towards a move to the Championship or the Premier League — the dream was endless. We played against Norwich in the Carabao Cup and I scored against them and we won. I was matching myself against Premier League players. Everyone in the area knew about me.”

Upon signing for Crawley in the July, the club booked a two-week stay in the local Crowne Plaza hotel for Lubala. On the same day he moved to town, he began speaking to the young woman who would later accuse him of rape.

It started, Lubala says, when the woman liked his photographs on social media.

“They announced I had signed for the team so everyone around there knew there was a new player in town,” he says. “That’s how she found out my name and saw my pictures. Then she said some of her friends had sent her pictures of me. She said that I was really good looking and that’s why she approached me. I hadn’t even played for Crawley at this point.

“She said she likes football, loves sports, does boxing, and keeps tabs on all the local teams. She was really interested. It was a normal, good conversation. I said I was at the hotel and she said where she worked was not too far so she can come to see me after work. So it was a bit fast. That was the first time we met, at my hotel.”

Is it common for footballers to meet up with women after exchanging messages on Instagram?

In retrospect, he says: “It’s hard, because people don’t see you as a person at times. They just see: He’s a football player. You see a blue tick, see he’s verified and they just message you. If I looked in my request inbox now, there are probably a few random girls saying ‘What’s your Snapchat?’ You’ve got to gauge who is looking like they could be a fake account or who’s genuine. That’s the hard thing to know: Who can you trust? Who can you date?”

 

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At his hotel, things moved quickly.

“I came down to reception, we were there for half an hour or so. She asked if she can come upstairs to my room and chill, and that was really casual. The day just kept going on. And obviously, I’m not trying to be rude but I asked, ‘When are you going home?’, but she said, ‘It’s got a bit late’, so I asked if she wanted some food.

“We ordered a takeaway in my room. And then it kept getting late. And then she kind of said, ‘Oh, can I stay?’ We ended up having sex quite a lot, three times, and in the morning as well. And then in the morning, she said, ‘Should we get breakfast?’ and I said, ‘No problem.’ She got on the phone and ordered room service. I paid for everything. She stayed at the hotel until 1pm and then I walked her to her car and gave her a hug. We carried on talking from there.”

The pair, he says, met up again a few weeks later. He says: “We slept together and that was the second time. It was casual, getting to know each other; it was very natural and normal.”

The pair met again during the late hours of September 13, 2019 and into the early hours of the following morning.

Thirteen days on, Lubala received a knock at his door.

“I’m at home, it’s 10.30pm,” he says. “I normally do my stretches at night. I’ve got my mat on the floor. It was a bit of a scary moment because I saw bodies walking around the house. I saw two people around the back. I can see that men are looking through the door and there’s a few at the front knocking on the door. I open the door. They said, ‘Are you Mr Lubala?’ At that point, when it was the police, I was thinking they must have got the wrong person. I said, ‘Are you sure you’re looking for me?’. They said, ‘Yeah, can we come in and talk to you?’”

There were four policemen, he recalls. “I don’t know if they thought I was going to cause trouble. I said, ‘What’s this all about?’ That’s when they said to me, ‘There’s been an allegation of rape’. I was just confused. I asked, ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right person?’.

“I’ve never been in that situation before. I asked if I could call my agent — you get to call somebody when you get into the station. The police stepped into my living room, locked up upstairs and the bedroom. They didn’t want anything to move around. They came in and took pictures of my room as it was, (including) where I keep my condoms. In the case, (that image) helped me a lot because I said, when she wanted to have sex with me, I had to leave my bed to go get protection which was on the other side of the room.”

He slept in a cell that night. “There were loads of things going through my head. I didn’t know who (the complainant) was at that stage. I was just thinking who it was — which was hard, because she was the only person I was seeing recently. I didn’t think we ever had any problems. I never sensed anything like that.

“The other people I’ve had relationships with, I just thought, ‘No, it can’t be’. I was just confused. I called a close family friend and he called the solicitor Iqbal Ahmed, who came to see me the next day. He told me who the name of the person is, because they gave him that information. As soon as he said that, I was able to tell him our whole history. He said, ‘Give a detailed account of everything from minute one’. That’s what I did. In court, it was so consistent.”

On November 23, 2020, Lubala was charged with rape.

When the trial came, the court heard the intimate details of the alleged assault. The prosecution accused the footballer of grabbing the young woman by the hair, instructing her to stop making noise and to be “a good girl”. The complainant told the court: “I said ‘No’, and he carried on. He turned into a different person. There was no kind of listening to what I did and didn’t want.”

The jury heard a tearful voice message the woman recorded on her drive home after the alleged incident on September 13, 2019.

She said: “We have slept together in the past. We were just chilling and it just happened and I didn’t want him to. I told him I didn’t want him to. I’m just driving home in the dark, I can’t stop crying.”

Richard Hearnden, the barrister speaking for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that the woman “was raped by a man she knew, in his house.” Lubala denied the allegation.

His version of events differed. He said the pair had arranged for her to come over to his house on September 13.

He said in court: “She said, ‘Yeah, I can come around and chill, but I can’t have sex’. That was the first time she had ever said something like that. My response was, ‘What are you talking about? We don’t have to have sex, we can chill.’

“It was on a Friday, I don’t like to have sex before match day. My legs can feel achy and low on energy. My idea was to watch a movie. I didn’t have any TVs upstairs, only downstairs. She said, ‘No, let’s go straight upstairs, I just want to lie down and we will watch something on your iPad’.”

He said the pair did go on to have consensual sex but when he returned from a trip to the bathroom, the woman was getting dressed and said she needed to go home as she planned to be up early in the morning.

 

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He added: “This was around half-one. She said, ‘I have got to go’. I felt it wasn’t safe for her to drive home but I had football the next day. She has gone home and that was it, really. I told her to message me when she got home to let me know she had got home safe. I never got a reply.”

As the trial continued, the court heard further information, notably that the complainant had twice attempted to withdraw her evidence and pull out of the prosecution a year before the trial took place. She said this was because she was by then in a happy relationship with a new partner and “thought this would put me 10 steps back”.

During cross-examination of the woman, the barrister Julia Smart QC asked: “Is it (that) you got carried away and regretted you had slept with a man?”

The woman replied: “I regretted going because I now have to deal with this for the rest of my life, but I didn’t consent. My sexuality has nothing to do with this.”

The court was additionally presented with a happy-looking selfie taken by the woman in Lubala’s bedroom on the night of the alleged incident, although the woman insisted in court that it was taken before the incident. The court also heard that Lubala had received nude images of the woman’s tattoos and that the pair had exchanged suggestive messages.

In court, Lubala was reported to have broken down while recounting his own experiences and the impact on his life and his career.

He received character references from a sports lawyer, a pastor at Crawley, his girlfriend, a family friend from Leicester and also Nathan Williams, who is his business partner at the charity BL Ballers, which launched before any of these allegations and made a donation to the Common Goal movement launched by Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata before Lubala’s life changed in September 2019.

After the allegations were made, Lubala started dating his girlfriend, who does not wish to be named in this report.

She says: “We are both from Leicester. We have known each other as friends for a long time and things gradually moved into a relationship after the allegations. We have spent our entire relationship with that hanging over us. As soon as I told my family, they did not even ask me if he did it. They know him well enough to say he is not capable of doing something like that. They know who he is and I did not have to do much explaining. We had everyone supporting us.”

The couple say legal costs exceeded £80,000 and this money will not be returned to Lubala, apart from travel costs for the trial at Lewes Crown Court on the outskirts of Brighton, 26 miles south of Crawley. Lubala earned £600 per week at Crawley but when he joined Blackpool, his salary tripled. He recognises he was privileged to be able to afford, albeit not comfortably, specialist legal advice.

He reflects: “There are a lot of young black men who just have legal-aid lawyers who pick up their case an hour before. I am very grateful to have lawyers who were so alert in court and who had fully prepared my case.”

Asked whether he believes his race was a factor in the case going so far, he says: “I am not going to play it down. I see things in the news and certain people are framed more harshly. I remember people asking me what the colour the girl who accused me is. That’s evidence against you, in some people’s eyes. All the little things people say. They do that all the time. ‘He is an aggressive black man’. People meet me and see a different side; the things I do outside football, how I work with charities. You do get treated harsher.”

What did his parents say? “My dad said, ‘Tell me what happened’. I said, ‘There’s no chance, dad (that I would do it)’. My mum had no doubt. She didn’t even ask me, she knew her son.”

As he awaited a verdict, Lubala envisaged his possible fate. He asked his lawyers how many years he would spend in prison in the event of a guilty verdict.

“Obviously, the reputational damage would mean my life would be ruined in many ways,” he says. “But all those bits in between, where my child would grow up and the time I could lose with my daughter, were running through my mind. That was the scariest part. I was pretty calm, because my faith really kicked in. I am a Christian. It was written, whatever the outcome.

“In court, the wardens were very supportive to me. They were making sure I was OK. From the second or third day, I could feel a positive energy in the room. I remember how the jury members cannot give facial expressions during the trial. I saw two older white men on the jury, who had a straight face throughout. When I was talking, I looked into their eyes and just thought, ‘He doesn’t believe me’.

“Then I got the ‘Not guilty’ and saw them all smiling at me, one of the women (on the jury) looked like she was going to cry. The judge told me to get back on with my life. Even those I thought were not on my side, they were all smiling at me.

“It was unanimously not guilty within two hours. It must have been pretty clear to them.”

For almost two and a half years, Lubala’s freedom had remained in limbo.

For a while, his career continued uninterrupted — unlike, for example, the Everton footballer who is under police investigation for alleged child sex offences but has not been charged.

Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood is in a similar situation, having been arrested and interviewed by police after footage emerged on social media relating to a young woman this year. He too has not been charged.

In Lubala’s case, the police investigation did not become public and Crawley allowed him to continue to play for them. He scored 13 goals in 41 all-competitions appearances in his sole campaign for the club as they finished mid-table in that pandemic-curtailed season.

Then, on September 1, 2020, League One side Blackpool committed a six-figure fee, stated in court to be £300,000, to sign Lubala. This is where his personal and professional life began to collide.

After his not guilty verdict, Blackpool issued a club statement to say they had signed Lubala without any prior knowledge of the allegations he faced. They also added: “The club would like to make clear that it would not knowingly sign a footballer, nor employ any individual, who is subject to a police investigation of this gravity.”

 

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In January this year, the court heard that Blackpool remained engaged in legal action against Crawley for the selling club’s alleged failure to disclose the claims. The Athletic now understands this matter has been settled.

Both Blackpool and Crawley declined to comment.

On November 23, 2020, Lubala received a letter in the post notifying him that he had been charged with rape and the case would go to trial.

Despite the charge, the case remained out of the public eye.

Neither Lubala nor his representatives initially informed Blackpool he had been charged. They have told The Athletic this was on legal advice from the lawyers working on his defence, who they say remained hopeful the case might collapse before any trial.

Almost four months after that notification of charge in the November, Blackpool were informed by Lubala’s agent about both the allegations and the charge for the first time. The Football Association imposed an interim suspension from football-related activity and Blackpool also suspended him for two weeks, before holding disciplinary hearings on March 29 and April 6 last year. These culminated in the club, by then in the Championship after promotion via the play-offs, sending a letter of termination to Lubala.

During the hearings, Blackpool considered whether Lubala’s alleged conduct risked bringing them and the sport at large into disrepute. Additionally, the club argued that the strain of the allegations had the potential to impact the player’s ability to perform as an athlete and this, they said, was reinforced by the fact his agent had organised counselling for Lubala via the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

In a statement to The Athletic, Blackpool said: “The club considered the above matters (ie, bringing the club into disrepute). However, the club’s decision to terminate was based on the club’s position that Lubala had breached his duty of trust and confidence owed to the club, by failing to disclose the serious criminal allegations and, later, the criminal charge to the club. The club’s position was that Lubala’s concealment of this serious matter was dishonest, particularly given the specific nature of a player’s obligations to their employer (including the importance of a player’s ability to train and play for the club).

“There were multiple occasions when the club felt he should have disclosed it – not only did he fail to bring it to the club’s attention when it was being investigated by the police, but he also failed to inform the club’s once he was formally charged with rape, risking the club becoming aware through the matter coming into the public domain, following a public hearing, rather than being told by its own employee, which would have been extremely damaging. The club’s position was therefore that trust and confidence had been breached by Lubala.”

Lubala and his legal team enlisted the support of the PFA, which is essentially the trade union for players. Blackpool’s decision was appealed and overturned last August by a Football League panel. In his initial conversations with the PFA, the body warned Lubala he may go without pay and should explore alternative work opportunities.

Lubala says: “I spent three weeks working at an (Amazon) warehouse packing boxes, and also driving carers around. My missus was pregnant and I had to make sure everything was OK financially. The warehouse work was until 4am four days per week. ”

How did it feel for a professional footballer to be transplanted into a night job? “Weird,” he says. “You are very upset and thinking, ‘Why am I here?’ I was wearing a face mask and talking to other workers. They did not know they were talking to someone who would ordinarily be paid more. I pretended I was studying at college and trying to make extra money and blagging it. If I said, ‘I am a professional footballer’, they would be asking what I was doing there.

“It was uncertain if I would be paid (by Blackpool). When I was paid, I messaged the PFA and asked if it was a mistake and if I needed to send it back. He said I did not need to. I said to the PFA I was prepared to go to a hearing, even though I was not guaranteed to win and it could be better to accept a settlement. I would rather lose in a hearing because I have not done anything wrong.”

The Football League, ultimately, ruled in Lubala’s favour, which meant he remained contracted to the Lancashire club on full pay. The panel’s decision, according to Blackpool, was based on the legal principle that an employee does not have a duty to disclose the existence of a serious accusation against them, subject to certain exceptions.

Blackpool told The Athletic: “The club’s position was that this was an exceptional situation and, given the very unique relationship between a football player and their club, such a duty did arise. The panel considered that ‘excellent submissions’ were raised in respect of the club’s position, but ultimately concluded that this was not a case where they could depart from the legal principle that an employee does not need to subjugate their own interests to those of their employer. The panel therefore ordered that the playing contract should subsist.”

After the Football League ruled in Lubala’s favour, Blackpool were obliged to keep him on their payroll and ensure he was able to stay in shape. The club drew up a safeguarding agreement, which they say sought to both ensure the safety of Blackpool employees on the premises and also protect the player.

Some of the clauses, Lubala argues, appear more severe than was necessary. In court, he explained how the club insisted he would not be allowed to shower on club premises unless he was competing in a game, which meant he was not able to do so after training. The player was also forbidden from being in a one-on-one situation with any females or any under-18s (of any gender) in spaces including the canteen, offices and toilets at both the club’s training ground and stadium. This is despite the allegations being made by a woman who was aged 18 at the time of the incident.

He was also only permitted to be treated by male therapists, though not in a one-on-one setting, while also being barred from the club’s bar and the players’ lounge at the stadium. He was allowed to eat with the other players but informed he should leave immediately after finishing his meal. Lubala continued to attend Blackpool matches but says he was required to leave around 20 minutes before the end, so as not to risk coming into contact with supporters around the stadium.

Lubala tells The Athletic: “Nobody was allowed to talk to me. I messaged a staff member and had no response and thought, ‘What?!’

“I messaged the manager (Neil Critchley) before the play-off final (against Lincoln City last May) to wish them well and he replied to say thank you. Everyone was told not to speak to me. These guys have mortgages and contracts. They could not risk stepping out of line and jeopardising their jobs.

“I was able to train at Blackpool when I returned. No games — just training. It was training with the team sometimes. The manager was good with me, the footballing staff involved me when they could. The FA said I could not do community work, which was frustrating, considering the charity work that I do. It was no showers — come in your kit and leave in your kit. There was this whole list of things I could not do.

“It makes you feel like you have a mark over your head. When you are walking around, it felt like, ‘That’s him’.

“It made me feel like they did not want me there. They took me off the website, and took my picture down. If I wasn’t as strong-minded in how I think, it could easily make people go underwater with that kind of thing; not letting you speak to people around you or showering. It made me the odd one out.

 

[AbelBFC]

“I could eat in the canteen but there would be a staff member in the room to watch over me. At the training ground, a member of staff was allocated to keep an eye on me. At the stadium, I had to have someone with me. I could feel that person feeling really awkward. It would be a club staff member, like a physio. There was a time I was in the gym and the physio had to call upstairs to check I was allowed to go into the canteen.”

Did he consider walking away? “No, I knew it was important not to lash out or lose control. I never did and I never lost hope. I maybe had little things in training sessions like normal. I went to support the boys at every game. The boys had no idea what was going on. They asked, and I said I could not talk about it. They were saying, ‘It is the biggest secret in football!’. When they did find out, they said they were so sorry this had happened to me.”

Lubala repeatedly states during the interview that he felt kindly treated by head coach Critchley and his staff, to the best of their abilities within the restrictions.

Blackpool say the club were “under a duty to consider the safeguarding position in relation to the allegation — bearing in mind that this player was, at the time, charged with a serious criminal allegation of rape and awaiting trial — which its safeguarding officer duly did.”

His unexplained omission from match-day squads led to gossip spreading. “There were rumours I had beaten someone up,” Lubala says. “Nobody mentioned anything to do with a female. It was more, ‘Did he bet?’, ‘Did he do drugs?’ Closer to the trial, I spoke to some of the senior players and explained I was going into a trial, just to give them an idea before things became public. I wanted them to hear it from me. When I came back, there were big cheers in the changing room. It made it worth it; the fact I had remained professional.”

During two hours of conversation, Lubala’s calmness is notable. At no point does he appear outwardly angry as he recounts his experiences. “It is my faith,” he says. “I was speaking to my pastors and speaking to Christians In Sport on Zoom. I did that every Monday and Wednesday.”

Lubala says some of those advising him felt Blackpool treated him more harshly than they may have done to another player who, hypothetically, may have been in better form. He had made only five League One starts for them by February 2021 and had failed to score a goal in his 14 total appearances. He says: “One thing we said with Blackpool, the PFA said maybe if it was a different player scoring a lot of goals, the club might have protected you more. At the time, I was not a key player in the team. If I was scoring all the goals, maybe there would have been more juggling based on the value you bring as a player.”

In response, Blackpool say: “The club absolutely refutes this statement. Lubala’s form at the time was absolutely not a factor in the decisions taken regarding his contract or the safeguarding plan; the club would have taken the same actions in respect of any one of its players.”

Now 24, Lubala is attempting to move forward with his young family, but he knows his reputation has been affected by the trial and, for that reason, he initiated this interview.

He secured a loan move away from Blackpool in January, although The Athletic has separately been told of one club who decided to steer away, despite his not guilty verdict, due to the headlines surrounding him.

Lubala says: “Colin Calderwood, the assistant manager at Northampton Town, knew me from Blackpool (he was on Critchley’s staff last season) and told me he wanted me as soon as it was over when I would be proven not guilty.”

His focus now, he says, is expanding his charity work, having previously supported anti-knife crime projects in Leicester. His BL Ballers charity has run two event days, one in 2019 and one last year, where attendees play five-a-side football, but also have access to workshops and pathways for careers in football. He says: “We try to take kids off the streets and show there are different ways into refereeing, coaching, playing, or a regular job.”

Those first two tournaments donated proceeds to Common Goal and a third is planned for this June, which will also feature a family fun day element including bouncy castles, activities and face painters.

Since the trial, Lubala says other footballers have been in touch with him to share their own experiences. “As players, we are lucky to have the PFA, who played a huge part in stepping in and helping me when I really needed it. It might require players like me to speak to other players. Since I returned to playing, I have had players come up to me after games and say they have experienced similar allegations that did not make it to trial. People now see me as someone to call as I have experienced it.

“It is wrong to draw footballers as a whole in a negative light. There are plenty of players with families who treat everyone well. So it does a disservice. When I walk down the street and am at home, I dress down and I am a normal person.”

His close shave with the law has compelled him to reflect, however, on the industry’s relationship with females.

He says: “Speaking to females is a big thing; how to show respect, how to approach females, and how to avoid situations. You need to know the risk of talking to a female and, the very same day, inviting them to go to your hotel. You can only learn so much about them in a day. It is better to take your time.

“There is a lot to be done. On the education side, it is important for players to know how they can spot things on social media. Can you spot someone talking to you for who they are? And how do you speak in a way that does not cross boundaries?”

For Lubala, speaking out offers closure. Summarising after the verdict at court in Lewes, Her Honour Judge Shani Barnes said: “Thank you all for staying so calm, I know that was hard for you. This one took on a whole new level of pressure. People’s lives were on hold. You are free to go back to your lives and Mr Lubala is free to go back to his.”

If you have been affected by this story and would like support, please try Samaritans in the US or UK

 

[nodrogaty]

Doesn't really matter how much we analyse it, He's not guilty and our club should be ashamed at the way they have treated him.

 

[inside_man]

Doesn't really matter how much we analyse it, He's not guilty and our club should be ashamed at the way they have treated him.

Genuinely out of interest, not trying to get into an argument at all - how should they have treated him?

- He didn't disclose that he was under caution, and latterly when he was charged, for rape. Neither him nor Crawley saw fit to disclose this.
- The club did not try to sack him because he had been charged, it was because they hadn't been informed when they had spent a significant sum of money to sign him.
- When the club were told that his contract could not be terminated (after it was appealed and overturned) they put in place protection measures which do not seem disproportionate to the fact he had been charged with a sex offence.

If I had not disclosed this to my employers prior to signing a new contract, i'd be dismissed instantly. If I had been charged whilst under employment, I would be suspended from work and not allowed in the office.

 

[SeasideEssexXile]

£90k/season in wages + transfer / signing fees = he has turned out to be an expensive signing which the club management clearly regrets.
Add to that BG on the board is a legal eagle so must have thought we were on solid ground to sack him once the matter was brought to their attention.
Add him to Nuttall and it's a fair chunk of money for very little return in the number of goals scored.
One thing is for certain,we must have told him his future is no longer with us and he has got his side of events out to improve his chances of remaing a pro footballer by being signed by another team.
The whole scenario has clearly affected him on the pitch - 14 games for the cobblers with 0 goals and 1 assist.

The season prior to him joining us he had 13 gials in 41 games.

 

[SeasideEssexXile]

He has joined an elite club at Blackpool:
Chopra, Earnshaw, Beattie, et al, of never having scored a goal for us.

 

[nodrogaty]

Genuinely out of interest, not trying to get into an argument at all - how should they have treated him?

- He didn't disclose that he was under caution, and latterly when he was charged, for rape. Neither him nor Crawley saw fit to disclose this.
- The club did not try to sack him because he had been charged, it was because they hadn't been informed when they had spent a significant sum of money to sign him.
- When the club were told that his contract could not be terminated (after it was appealed and overturned) they put in place protection measures which do not seem disproportionate to the fact he had been charged with a sex offence.

If I had not disclosed this to my employers prior to signing a new contract, i'd be dismissed instantly. If I had been charged whilst under employment, I would be suspended from work and not allowed in the office.

Without doubt he should have made it known, perhaps he considered himself innocent at that time ?
Assuming that every one is innocent until proven guilty, then definitely with a little more respect. The poor man was isolated and treated like a leper, absolutely ott and unnecessary. The club jumped to its own conclusions without giving him any benefit of doubt... or perhaps he's guilty until proven innocent ? Being charged for a crime is entirely different from being found guilty of that crime. Either way the club was out of order imho and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.

 

[Bear1951]

It might be that he genuinely thought the matter had gone away?

 

[inside_man]

Without doubt he should have made it known, perhaps he considered himself innocent at that time ?
Assuming that every one is innocent until proven guilty, then definitely with a little more respect. The poor man was isolated and treated like a leper, absolutely ott and unnecessary. The club jumped to its own conclusions without giving him any benefit of doubt... or perhaps he's guilty until proven innocent ? Being charged for a crime is entirely different from being found guilty of that crime. Either way the club was out of order imho and nothing is going to convince me otherwise.

So is this specifically with regards to the safeguarding measures that were in place when he returned to the club pre-trial? It would have been (in my opinion) a dereliction of duty for the club to let him continue unrestricted. If anything, I think the club did an exceptional job in keeping it out of the press for so long.

Consider the alternatives happening at the moment:
- Sigurdsson - suspended from all club activities. Not even charged yet.
- Greenwood - suspended from all club activitives. Not even charged yet.

Whilst he has now been found innocent and should be completely free to resume his playing career, whilst under caution or charge for a sex offence the club has to put in place reasonable control measures.

 

[nodrogaty]

So is this specifically with regards to the safeguarding measures that were in place when he returned to the club pre-trial? It would have been (in my opinion) a dereliction of duty for the club to let him continue unrestricted. If anything, I think the club did an exceptional job in keeping it out of the press for so long.

Consider the alternatives happening at the moment:
- Sigurdsson - suspended from all club activities. Not even charged yet.
- Greenwood - suspended from all club activitives. Not even charged yet.

Whilst he has now been found innocent and should be completely free to resume his playing career, whilst under caution or charge for a sex offence the club has to put in place reasonable control measures.

I get the fact that the club is wanting to maintain its squeaky clean reputation, but to be asked to turn up in a track suit and leave in it ? Not allowed a shower ? Not allowed to talk to anyone ? What do they think hes going to do ffs? Silly, ott and pre judgemental. How would you cope with being wrongfully accused and then being ostracised ?
Why not just suspend him and leave him to his own devices, we're probably paying him peanuts anyway.

I can't comment on Sigurdsson because I know nothing of it, but Greenwood appears to be in the wrong if the voice tape evidence is anything to go off, both rightly suspended no doubt.

Your last paragraph, the measures were not reasonable. they were disrespectful and humiliating. He should now be totally free without smear.

Never the less UTMP.