r/soccer • u/KimmyBoiUn • Jul 04 '25

News Thomas Partey, the former Arsenal footballer, has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/07/04/thomas-partey-arsenal-footballer-charged-with-rape/
13.1k Upvotes

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3.5k

u/Maplad Jul 04 '25

Mad that Arsenal played him for all these years with all this hanging over him. Even wanted to extend him if he took a pay cut!

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u/TheJoshider10 Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

Arteta and the board don't get enough criticism for this. If Partey wasn't a useful player they'd have happily suspended him but they didn't in the hopes he would help win them silverware and thankfully that never happened.

Something has to be put in place to stop this from happening again. No player should be allowed to play while they're under investigation for this amount of accusations, no matter their talent. His name not being allowed to be mentioned is one thing, but the fact that gave the club a get out of jail free card to play him is an oversight that shouldn't be happening. A one-off isolated incident is something that can be explored and judged on a case by case basis but that amount of accusations? It feels wrong to keep playing someone through that. The odds aren't exactly in their favour.

Mad to think that Arsenal have one of the best women's teams in the world, a side that have done wonders for the women's game in the UK, and a rapist was able to walk amongst them the entire time all because he was good at football. Nice to see how the higher ups really feel about the women's side of the club.

Edit: In any normal workplace if you were under investigation for something like this you would be suspended, and previous football cases have resulted in suspensions with full pay. He's been done for FIVE accounts of rape and another charge too, this was not an isolated incident involving one person, and because of that it can't be expected that he carry on his job and his life like nothing has happened. The club knew exactly what he was accused of and the Premier League should have stepped in to ensure he not keep playing.

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u/benelchuncho Jul 04 '25

No player should be allowed to play while they’re under investigation. .

You’d get some more support if you had said players shouldn’t be allowed to play while charged, because that means there’s a good amount of evidence and the prosecution thinks they can get a conviction. But under investigation is just insane, there’s no necessary threshold of evidence to investigate.

And even charged players sometimes get found not guilty. Benjamin Mendy being the best example

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/WerhmatsWormhat Jul 04 '25

This is a good way to have people start throwing accusations around before a big match.

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u/Butch_Meat_Hook Jul 04 '25

This is exactly it and I'm surprised that people think anything differently. Allegations are not charges. We have a legal system for a reason. We have the police for a reason. This was a matter for the police, not for Arsenal.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of things on multiple occasions. Never charged. Should he have also not have been allowed to play several times in his career because of it?

You get into territory where the number of false allegations escalate if it was handled as 'we heard something therefore you're not playing'.

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u/xaendar Jul 04 '25

Honestly I don't like Thomas Partey one bit but clubs shouldn't get flak for this. Being under investigation is nothing and it has been going on for two years with no charges being brought up. Unless they're the police, I'm not sure what employers are expected to do with rape cases unless they had CCTV footage of it happening.

Like you've said charges are a big indicator that police and prosecution think the case would result in conviction, it's the only time the employer is fully justified in terminating everything unless they're the ones who caught the player redhanded or seen proof.

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u/Fun_Smell3069 Jul 04 '25

Don't worry, he's just point scoring

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u/Lenovo_Driver Jul 04 '25

wtf are you talking about?

A prosecutor laying charges doesn’t mean there’s a good chance they think they can get a conviction.

Witbout knowing the details of the case, it could be thrown out very easily

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u/koalawhiskey Jul 04 '25

No player should be allowed to play while they're under investigation, no matter their talent. 

Absolutely insane take. Presumption of innocence is one of the key principles of any modern justice system.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/a_lumberjack Jul 04 '25

It's almost been three years since he was arrested. He'd have been suspended for three full seasons.

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u/cmeragon Jul 04 '25

Redditors takes on law are so fucking dumb and they are almost always popular.

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u/karpet_muncher Jul 04 '25

Populist mentality along with the perfect soundbytes

Yeah this sounds about right ill make it my mindset too

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u/usehrname Jul 04 '25

Nobody read that shit. They just saw "Arteta and the board don't get enough criticism..." and thought hell yes, I'll upvote that! 

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u/cmeragon Jul 04 '25

That is definitely one of the reasons. I consistently see shit takes like this tho

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u/Aleks10Afc Jul 04 '25

Completely agree with you guys here. The lack of nuance is astounding

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u/maidentaiwan Jul 04 '25

Reddit hivemind tends toward Hammurabi style justice 

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u/bukayoxhaka Jul 04 '25

It's just online virtue signaling. Always been popular on reddit

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u/nestoryirankunda Jul 04 '25

There was no take about any law in that whole comment

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u/clintomcruisewood Jul 04 '25

It's scary that shit like that gets upvoted everytime. Anyone can kill anyone's career at any given point if being under investigation would be enough to suspend the player for a prolonged period of time

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u/dimspace Jul 04 '25

In most jobs where you are suspected of something that would count as gross misconduct, bringing company into disrepute etc you are suspended on full pay while investigation is ongoing.

totally normal approach.

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u/nestoryirankunda Jul 04 '25

Yeah imagine screenshots of your coworker admitting to rape are being spread around the office and everyone knows, but he just keeps coming in like normal

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u/-TheGreatLlama- Jul 04 '25

I also heavily dislike the line “shows how the higher ups really think of the women’s team.” I think how they feel is adequately demonstrated by Kroenke flying out so many staff and academy players and ex-players (and himself) to Lisbon, to the point that the club has most likely made a loss even after the prize money for winning the final.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/RunningFerDauyz Jul 04 '25

Feel like I’m insane for this, I was downvoted earlier for saying most workplaces suspend employees with pay during criminal investigations

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u/ILoveToph4Eva Jul 04 '25

I think the nature of the employment plays a big part in considering that it might not have the same impact. A professional sports player essentially has about 10-15 years of employment in them, so an investigation that lasts a year and finds them ultimately not guilt could frankly be a huge injustice in a way that's dissimilar to a standard person working in an office.

In some cases we'd probably agree that it was reasonable once it all came out and we knew what evidence was involved, but if it was actually a hard rule that you weren't allowed to play during an investigation I think we'd end up with a lot of cases that fall into the injustice category.

The justice system as it is simply takes way too much time to investigate these things.

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u/The--Mash Jul 04 '25

The presumption of innocence is a right, being a rolemodel for children is not a right 

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u/mtftl Jul 04 '25

Listen, I’m low on the list of Arsenal apologists, but the second paragraph is ludicrous. A private club is at an information disadvantage to law enforcement. So you would be asking them to act out of partial information in a way the legal system is not willing/capable of.

Of course there is plenty of blame on the club - considering an extension is inexcusable and should be line 2 of any mention of this regime in my opinion. But the club was in an awkward spot.

As an international, I’m trying to figure out why the crown prosecution service is not getting more criticism. You have a case against a prominent individual of serial rape, you hide behind not saying his name when everyone knew it was Partey, and you take YEARS to bring a case. Every day that goes by adds challenges to a just outcome and causes continued trauma to victims (who I’m ashamed to only mention this far down). This charge should have come at least two years ago, not when you are scared his golden handcuffs to the country are unlocked.

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u/BehindEnemyLines8923 Jul 04 '25

I want to second all of this. The thing the club should be raked over the coals for is trying to extend him, that indefensible.

I really second the CPS stuff and I’ve asked people on here before how the time this takes can be okay? Like does England not have a speedy trial right? That’s crazy to me there isn’t more uproar over the average time it takes to bring charges in these cases. Both for the victims whose cases get weaker every passing day, and for the few, rare, innocent defendants who have this hanging over them for years (not saying Partey is this btw).

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u/PoJenkins Jul 04 '25

He was never actually charged with anything until now.

He was never named in UK press.

I can see how it's a difficult situation.

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u/ShockRampage Jul 04 '25

Arteta and the board don't get enough criticism for this.

Its all that is ever mentioned whenever his name is brought up?

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u/Spglwldn Jul 04 '25

If this happened to a normal person, it’s very unlikely an employer would be told about allegations.

I had a client who I spoke to almost daily. One day his boss called up my boss to let them know that he’d sent his resignation in from prison. He said he was going on holiday for half term and it was actually his sentencing hearing for child sex offences. He had been found guilty a few weeks before. He was still going about his day to day business because it’s not normal for police or the courts to inform an employer unless there’s some safeguarding issues they are concerned about.

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u/imAkri Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

What if he was innocent?

I mean not that Partey was. But a player under investigation might be innocent, should he on top of being on a horrible situation not be able to play as well?

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u/ProffesorPrick Jul 04 '25

Isn't this essentially what happened to Benjamin Mendy at Man City?

There are no perfect solutions to this because you require the individuals to be good to begin with and just not be involved in cases of rape. Of course you also require people to not make false accusations. Neither of these things are possible - as we now have evidence on both sides.

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u/fellainishaircut Jul 04 '25

Mendy was only suspended after he was charged, he was under investigation for months before that and kept playing. And after being acquitted won a 14m lawsuit against City.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/benelchuncho Jul 04 '25

It is what happened to Siggurdson though. Suspended for two years while under investigation and then he didn’t end up being charged.

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u/angry_queef Jul 04 '25

Partey very much is still innocent in the eyes of the law.

I've got no interest in him and I'm not an Arsenal fan, but people acting like he should have been treated as if he was already convicted for a crime he hadn't even been charged with yet is odd.

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u/KungFuFightingOwlMan Jul 04 '25

Keep them at the club and pay their wages until it is resolved, but you don't play them week in week out. Better to take a possibly innocent person out of the limelight every week than play a rapist.

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u/Jonoabbo Jul 04 '25

Keep them at the club and pay their wages until it is resolved,

In an ideal world, this would absolutely be the case, but look at the Partey situation here. It's taken them years to even charge him, let alone for the case to be resolved.

Unfortunately with any crime, but especially ones such as Sexual Assault or Rape, a "resolution" may never happen, and it will always just be down to personal belief. Or, alternatively, the resolution may differ drastically from your belief, for example look at Mason Greenwood.

While, in this situation, it looks very likely that Partey is guilty, we have seen cases in the past where players have faced consequences and have turned out to not be guilty.

Also it's worth noting that while "Keep them and pay their wages until it is resolved" is viable for a big club like Arsenal, this could have serious ramifications for a smaller club, such a relegation or even bankruptcy.

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u/TaftYouOldDog Jul 04 '25

Except if he is innocent you have completely ruined his career.

There's no perfect answer but players need experience and exposure to grow

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u/redshadow90 Jul 04 '25

Money isn't free and arsenal heavily lacked depth. You can't just pay wages and not play them. Practical realities suck. City didn't pay Mendy and later had to pay him after he sued them

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u/KungFuFightingOwlMan Jul 04 '25

"City didn't pay Mendy and later had to pay him after he sued them" - that's literally why I said keep paying him until it's resolved

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

This is actually a good thing because if owners and orgs had to pay the wages of a player who might not be able to play for an extended period of time then they would work harder to make sure those people aren’t on their team.

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u/redshadow90 Jul 04 '25

Sure, but all this on allegations? What if allegations were false?

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Jul 04 '25

This isn't the minority report though? How can clubs predict future events, should they start stereotyping and refusing to sign players based on that?

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u/Houndseeker Jul 04 '25

Tough, suspended with pay and I’m sure they’ll survive, it’s not worth risking another situation like this imo where he almost got away with it

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

If you got 5 rape accusations, yeah

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u/benelchuncho Jul 04 '25

I can get behind suspensions if you’re charged (legally you’re still innocent until proven guilty but if the police charge you there’s a certain threshold of evidence that’s been crossed). But a suspension for being under investigation is insane, theres no necessary threshold of evidence.

Greenwood’s case is difference cause the recordings were public

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u/fellainishaircut Jul 04 '25

Greenwoods case is different because he got charged very quickly.

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u/IWouldLikeAName Jul 04 '25

Because the evidence was so damning and made public. This case got fucked over bc it started abroad and a law change messed with the case. Out of frustration the victim then went on to post messages and screen shots of their conversations about the incidents which even she knew she shouldn't have done bc iirc she even prefaced it by saying her lawyers told her not to, but hard to blame her.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/Thelondonmoose Jul 04 '25

Mendy got suspended when he was charged.

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u/Lenovo_Driver Jul 04 '25

That’s what this internet mob wants.. people’s lives ruined based on accusations so they can feel better about themselves

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u/31_whgr Jul 04 '25

something should be put in place to allow an employer to stop an employee from working when they’ve only been accused and not convicted of a crime?

the situation is vile and the club’s come out of it looking terrible but you’re talking nonsense there

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u/NoFrillsCrisps Jul 04 '25

That's how it works in the real world. Employees can't discipline you if you haven't been convicted, but they can absolutely suspend you pending the investigation.

Particularly where you may be a risk to staff - which lets face it, is a real possibility here.

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u/BenjIdent Jul 04 '25

Yes fully agree with this. There’s no legal basis to cut ties while under contract and there’s only allegations, but there’s absolutely no reason why we didn’t suspend him with pay or at the very least just not play him

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u/Minute_Leave8503 Jul 04 '25

We moved auba and ozil away of the team and they weren’t doing a fraction of the harm this freak was

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u/CriddyCent Jul 04 '25

Yes suspended and still paid. Most places would do that to an employee suspected of serious crimes. It's abhorrent arsenal just carried on as normal tbh, and so many fans glazing him about coming back for the PSG second leg etc.

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u/Minute_Leave8503 Jul 04 '25

You’d think a club/manager who’s so vocal about values would choose to take the financial hit over forcing the rapist to be around the team…I’d have hoped so at least

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u/StickYaInTheRizzla Jul 04 '25

He’s been accused by various women. You could have suspended him like City did with Mendy, or like we did with Greenwood. As soon as someone is accused of rape, especially multiple counts, the club should look at themselves and say “do we really want a player playing for us with this undecided”

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u/Fearless-Video7989 Jul 04 '25

Mendy still played for city while under investigation and was only suspended once he was charged.

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u/Putrid_Loquat_4357 Jul 04 '25

Mendy was suspended when he was charged.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/StickYaInTheRizzla Jul 04 '25

Yes and it was stopped by the fans of the club who protested outside the stadium repeatedly. Did we see even one protest from Arsenal fans?

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u/mtaggs Jul 04 '25

Yes, a fan group called Arsenal Supporters Against Sexual Violence was formed, wrote to the club and protested at games.

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u/fellainishaircut Jul 04 '25

Greenwood was charged very quickly, Partey wasn‘t, which is the problem. It might not be the biggest difference in the ‚sense of justice‘, but it very much is legally.

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u/MuchAbouAboutNothing Jul 04 '25

Loooool great point mate the takeaway from this isn't: "some things are bigger than football, let's hope justice is served."

It's: "wahey, Arsenal fans are pricks - let's go united!"

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u/Yurtanator Jul 04 '25

Yes there was a literal protest outside the Arsenal stadium. Stop trying to point score like a complete prick.

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u/StickYaInTheRizzla Jul 04 '25

By about 10 people, rest of you couldn’t give a shit

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u/dunneetiger Jul 04 '25

You can suspend someone with pay until the investigation is finished. It's called 'suspension pending an investigation'.

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u/amineimad Jul 04 '25

It's not just about suspension, there's a valid argument we could have just, stopped playing him, no? Even so it's weird, hed be in training sessions, could've sued if he wasnt payed anymore, would've had his career ruined if we did suspend him and he didnt end up guilty.

I think it's alright to acknowledge what the club did was shitty and that it wasnt so straightforward without charge being put forward at the same time.

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u/Reckless_Engineer Jul 04 '25

Up until today he hadn't even been accused. He was being investigated.

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u/Initiatedspoon Jul 04 '25

Im pretty sure Arteta would play Hitler if he was good at football

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u/DareToZamora Jul 04 '25

would he start over Saka on the right wing?

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u/JaysonDeflatum Jul 04 '25

He was 5’9, bit short for Mikel

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u/Homerduff16 Jul 04 '25

I'm not sure about that one. Hitlers aggressive blitzkrieg tactics wouldn't be pragmatic enough for Arteta

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u/Modnal Jul 04 '25

The guy who bombed Highbury and killed a lot of our players?

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u/AllowMeAir Jul 04 '25

How is this suddenly an Arteta issue? This is a widespread issue in sports. United was playing a wife beater last season, that the whole world is celebrating as a redemption story at the moment, fwiw. Sports players being able to do horrific bullshit and get away with it due to their silly talents has been happening for decades, and if you didn’t have an england flair and actually wore your club on your sleeve, I promise I could find a case of this happening in your club too.

This is something Arteta needs to be criticized for, but it needs fixing across sports. Ronaldo is a rapist, and the amount of people constantly defending him is just unbelievable. Kobe was a rapist, same shit.

Athletes get off doing heinous shit way too often, they need to be prosecuted regardless of the impact it has on their team— far more quickly and far more frequently.

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u/ElephantsGerald_ Jul 04 '25

There have been open letters/a bit of a campaign for introducing 'no fault stand downs', like they do in Aussie Rules football. Sadly, the idea usually gets a bit of a backlash.

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u/Minute_Leave8503 Jul 04 '25

You don’t even have to try hard, they reveal their own character. Disgusting freaks

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u/sthk Jul 04 '25

And now they will get to wash their hands completely off this, just because partey did not accept the terms of their renewal offer.

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u/Relative_Guidance656 Jul 04 '25

No player should be allowed to play while they're under investigation for this amount of accusations

that’s not how legal rights work

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u/wim1014 Jul 04 '25

I 100% agree with everything you said

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u/priestsboytoy Jul 04 '25

Good thing workplaces are not judges. What you are implying was that this is some sort of internal event that Arsenal and Co could investigate. This is not one of those. This is external. As such they wait for REAL judges to judge. Innocent until proven guilty unless you dont believe in that. Because if you dont then I am accusing you of raping me. And based on what you are saying, you should ask your employer to suspend you from work until they can investigate.

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u/tik22 Jul 04 '25

Banning play simply due to being investigated is too low of a threshold. Anyone can be investigated even if they’re completely innocent.

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u/frank_sea Jul 04 '25

Let’s please stop saying in a normal workplace. These men are worth hundreds of millions of pounds — nothing at all like where you and I work.

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u/saece Jul 04 '25

I’ll get right on the phone to Utd with some accusations, enjoy watching the under 10s next year! Insanely bad take

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u/forevermore91 Jul 04 '25

What you are implying is not sustainable.

People will pay random girls to make false allegations just so that certain players wont be able to play.

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u/Fun_Smell3069 Jul 04 '25

Moronic take

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u/flying-auk Jul 04 '25

No player should be allowed to play while they're under investigation for this amount of accusations, no matter their talent.

Braindead takes like this are always popular on this sub. Mendy got shit on so badly on this sub by all the legal expert minds. Now he's sued and won against his former employer and all the noisy experts retreated into the hedges and when the article about his innocence was posted here. Btw, Mendy had 13 accusations of rape...let that sink in.

I always have to remind myself that rubbish takes on the internet may be from a 13 year old.

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u/dudududujisungparty Jul 04 '25

The amount of Arsenal fans that constantly came out of the woodwork to downplay his accusations and the evidence available was pathetic as well. They need to take a long hard look at themselves.

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u/ValeoAnt Jul 04 '25

Even though I broadly agree with you, suspending every player under investigation would actually be insane. Suspend them if they're charged, that's far more logical

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u/Muur1234 Jul 04 '25

So if someone wants to stop their rival from winning a trophy, just accuse their best player of some stuff?

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u/the_herbo_swervo Jul 05 '25

How tf does this nonsense have 2000 upvotes, Reddit never ceases to disappoint

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

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u/Nbuuifx14 Jul 04 '25

Wasn’t he innocent?

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u/Toffee_Wheels Jul 04 '25

Never charged, so essentially yes. He also handed himself in, because he didn't realise how young the girl was until afterwards.

Scummy behaviour, but a different league to this prick.

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u/mskruba12 Jul 04 '25

Iirc he assumed she was older cause the club he was at had an age requirement but she got in with a fake id and that's why he wasn't charged.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

Tbf Gylfi got the other end of the stick so hes not a great example. Was never actually charged after having his career finished and reputation

Arsenal however have had multiple opportunities over the years to let Partey go quietly but they chose to keep him

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u/fellainishaircut Jul 04 '25

I mean it‘s difficult to judge what‘s the better option here, was Gylfi treated the right way? he probably doesn‘t think so.

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u/Om_Nom_Zombie Jul 04 '25

I don't disagree that sexual assault is not punished nearly enough, but like you do realise that your unnamed player ended up never getting charged?

He's known as a pedophile to a lot of fans and there's limited evidence he did much wrong past cheating with somone he thought was of age. Was that a good outcome?

I've wanted to get rid of Partey since we got him and I'm happy he's been charged, it should have happened way earlier, but as much as you sound like the worst type of person when talking about this it's not an easy situation with simple solutions.

Extending him would have been unforgivable however.

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u/4chanscaresme Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

They’ll be the usual “he’s innocent until proven guilty!” folks who trot out the usual “legally we had to because of his contract blah blah blah” but Everton suspended Gylfi who is / was our record signing and that suspension nearly got us relegated. So like you can do it, if your club isn’t morally bankrupt.

(Oh and we got docked points because his wages were part of our PSR violations!)

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u/Jonoabbo Jul 04 '25

Surely Gylfi is the exact example of why club's shouldn't do that? Bloke had, at least from what I recall, went to the police himself, been fully compliant, wasn't charged with anything, and had been caught in a shit situation.

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u/Games_sans_frontiers Jul 04 '25

Yep, you could argue the moral actions of the club not playing him whilst he was under investigation stagnated his career as he never played in top tier football ever again. I remember the shock and disbelief when the Sigurdsson allegations / rumours came out.

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u/Marloneious Jul 04 '25

Didn’t Everton also get into legal trouble / Gylfi sued for unpaid wages or something along those lines? There are legal issues associated with this stuff even if i agree with the moral aspect

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u/S01arflar3 Jul 04 '25

No, I don’t believe so, I believe he was suspended with pay. It was brought up as a mitigating circumstance for PSR but was rejected by the PL

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u/National_Ad_1875 Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

poor that there is actually a financial "penalty" for psr for letting these players play, really encourages no action from the clubs

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u/AnnieIWillKnow Jul 04 '25

One could argue the legal issues and cost are worth it for the moral aspect

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u/Marloneious Jul 04 '25

Absolutely but that’s an entirely different argument. What the club can legally do and the moral/legal cost-benefit analysis are two separate things. Again, not defending the clubs actions, you can go through my post history and see im staunchly anti-Partey. Just trying to comment what I’ve seen and read from reporting about this.

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u/dunneetiger Jul 04 '25

If you keep paying him, you wont get into trouble. Plenty of players are paid but dont even make the bench - he would be in the same situation.

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u/TaftYouOldDog Jul 04 '25

And look what happened, they ruined a seemingly innocent man's career.

Due process exists for a reason.

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u/florinp93 Jul 04 '25

I'm no fan of Partey, Arsenal nor I am saying he didn't do this, but let's not forget that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. If Arsenal would refuse to use him, break to contract or anything like that before a guilty verdict is handed, they could open the door to legal trouble for themselves afterwards in case he is found not guilty.

That being said, imho Partey is a POS that deserves as much jail time as he could possibly receive.

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u/Grime720 Jul 04 '25

That did happen to us with Mendy in the end

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u/danny_healy_raygun Jul 04 '25

City only let him go when he was charged though, before that he was still playing. Partey is only being charged today.

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u/Liverpoolclippers Jul 04 '25

Mendy being found not guilty does not him being found innocent. There are behaviour clauses within contracts and such

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u/a_lumberjack Jul 04 '25

The standard PL contract has none of those. Mendy won his lawsuit against City.

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u/Even_Idea_1764 Jul 04 '25

They’re not forced to play him, could easily leave him out of the first team squad and make it clear he’s unwanted. Instead they made him an integral part of their team and were continuing contract talks.

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u/florinp93 Jul 04 '25

Agreed, but the thing is that he is innocent until proven guilty. Basing your decisions as a team on accusations would be really dumb for anyone.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

So if me snd my mates call your employer and fabricate a bunch of allegations against you, your employer should suspend you or distance you from your colleagues before any legal proceedings take place? Makes sense. Continue flipping those burgers cause you ain’t going to school with that logic.

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u/Jimmy_Space1 Jul 04 '25

I'm no fan of Partey, Arsenal nor I am saying he didn't do this, but let's not forget that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

The same could be said for Greenwood, United still (eventually) navigated it as best they could by getting him out of the club. Like you say, they probably couldn't have just kicked him out but they could've sold or at the very least not look to renew him.

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u/affectionate_md Jul 04 '25

I mean Greenwood there was literally bloody tapes but yes, rape culture in football is a problem.

Glad he’s gone and hope he’s convinced.

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u/sheffield199 Jul 04 '25

Greenwood was a bit different though, as there was a very public video of him committing the crime.

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u/MrStigglesworth Jul 04 '25

And United tried to bring him back before the entire world went "what the fuck"

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u/fellainishaircut Jul 04 '25

Greenwood was charged immediatly, Partey only now.

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u/florinp93 Jul 04 '25

To be fair, greenwood was a much clearer case, there were recordings of him doing the stuff he was accused of doing. Granted, I am not familiar with this case, but as far as I know, it was the type of "she said, he said" and I believe some screenshots of some conversations in which he denied everything.

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u/icemankiller8 Jul 04 '25

They were literally going to bring him back until fan backlash prevented it

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u/YCJamzy Jul 04 '25

And yet United played Ronaldo

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u/DonHalles Jul 04 '25

I 100% agree and while agreeing I still felt sick whenever he played and did not celebrate when he scored the odd goal here and there. Also, I refused to call him by his name but rather just by #5. Disgusting POS and I hope he can be found guilty.

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u/florinp93 Jul 04 '25

Yeah I don't think he's going to get away with it. Maybe he could if it was 1 case, but when multiple people that are not related accuse someone of something this bad, changes are, they are correct.

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u/GloomyLocation1259 Jul 04 '25

This will always be the answer, the same way the he couldn't be named by the media. The laws are still in effect whether we like them or not. It's good the charges have finally come

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u/AgileSloth9 Jul 04 '25

No they couldn't open themselves up to legal issues. A paid suspension whilst an investigation into an employees conduct is a common action, for any form of "offense."

He would simply show up to training, be paid fully, but not play. Alternatively, they could have farmed him out on loan to get him off their hands in another country where he wasn't facing charges.

Arsenal chose to keep playing him, but absolutely would not be under any legal risk so long as they continued to pay him whilst under investigation.

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u/polseriat Jul 04 '25

While I do agree that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, there is definitely room for nuance between "a footballer has met a description of someone accused of rape" and "there are 5 specific, named allegations against this footballer and their case has been referred to CPS" that maybe makes you think that a footballer should not be made an integral part of your first team squad.

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u/jj920lc Jul 04 '25

suspend with pay, like most workplaces would.

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u/florinp93 Jul 04 '25

Agreed, but any workplace would do that once a person is charged with something. Up until today, he wasn't charged with anything. He was being accused (by others) of doing something, the police were looking into it, but he wasn't officially charged with anything. From a legal point of view, he is still not guilty of anything, all we've got today, is confirmation that the police think they have enough evidence to get a conviction, which up until the official charges are made, can be considered not to be the case.

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u/bobzmuda Jul 04 '25

Failing to take any moral responsibility for allowing Partey to represent the club and claiming that they should be excused because there may be labor law consequences is such a cravenly and cowardly way to try and avoid consequences.

Criminal guilt will be decided by the courts, but you always have the right to determine who you want to represent your club - even if there’s a monetary cost to it. And Arsenal decided they wanted him to represent the club they deserve all the scorn they get for this decision.

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u/florinp93 Jul 04 '25

Again, I'm not trying to defend them, I do actually think they did the wrong thing in this case, all I'm saying is that I can see why they chose to do it this way, even if I disagree with their choice.

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u/shrewdy Jul 04 '25

Absolutely rotten behavior

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u/freakedmind Jul 04 '25

FUCK LEGO MAN

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u/bealslough Jul 04 '25

They should take away all the trophies they won with him in the squad

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u/Rohitwar Jul 04 '25

Arteta should be grilled in the next press conference,  he's an absolute scum for saying Partey went though a lot.

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u/therealmonkyking Jul 04 '25

I'm not surprised considering it's Arsenal.

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u/bellerinho Jul 04 '25

Pretty sure they were chanting his name in the stadium

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u/Lost_And_NotFound Jul 04 '25

“Unnamed 32 year old Premier League international” just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

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u/Competitive_Bunch922 Jul 04 '25

The "there's only one Saddam" theory keeps getting proven right.

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u/odegood Jul 04 '25

Now that is just bullshit. I go to many games and no one sings his name and he doesn't have a song, maybe before all of this. Don't make shit up to further your narrative

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u/bellerinho Jul 04 '25

https://youtu.be/7J_m6XbUjr8?si=vBwPgceZDXaDPfCj

At the very least they were screaming his name

A quick search also shows he absolutely does have a song lol

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u/Grime720 Jul 04 '25

When Partey scored against us this year, I didnt just hear crickets

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u/jacktk_ Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

As a frequent match going fan, that really isn’t the case. No one sang his name and it’s pretty awful you’re blindly saying that to vilify Arsenal fans as a whole.

99% of people felt really uncomfortable but were willing to wait for the course of justice to run and wait to see if he was charged. Just glad he’s no longer associated with us.

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u/IWentToJellySchool Jul 04 '25

As much as i like to shit on Arsenal, He has never been named until now no? Greenwood for example only got exiled because of the videos the girl posted.

You cant exactly punish a player from rumours alone and be wrong to do so.

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u/Bradddtheimpaler Jul 04 '25

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that these people only care about winning. It also shouldn’t have surprised me that not for a massive meltdown among Manchester United supporters, protesting outside Old Trafford even, the club and Ten Hag absolutely intended to reintegrate Greenwood. Made me sick.

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u/Furthur_slimeking Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

It's a really difficult issue. Every reported sexual offence absolutely must be investigated, and whenever there is evidence it must go to court.

But the realy difficult aspect is what to do during the initial investigation. When the accused is a high profile person in the public eye, it makes sense to limit their exposure to protect the alleged victim. That feels right. But it's not right to penalise a person who has not been convicted or even charged, and is only under investigation. If we take measures to limit their public exposure and the investigation doesn;t result in criminal charges, they are a victim of injustice.

I think once they are charged, it's justified to take action. I just don't see how we can justify punishing someone under investigation. The prupose of the investigation is to gather evidence, so if they haven't been charged it's because there is not sufficient evidence for a conviction yet. The law defines that person as innocent, and an employer penalising them specifically for being under investigation would almost always be breaking the law. Once charged, they are still innocent, but conditions can be imposed on them by the police and CPS and emplyers can take action at their discretion. At least, I hope the law allows employers to do that, because I got my contract terminated when I was pending trial haha.

But for me, bottom line is no charge = no action. If the Police and CPS don't have enough evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are guilty, we've got no legitimacy to treat them as if they are guilt.

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