The damaging connection between rape and professional football
- @snhw_
It has been reported that Ronaldo and his team paid a settlement of $375,000 in order to have Mayorga sign an NDA in which it was written that she would not go public with the events that happened on the evening in question. Ronaldo himself has strongly denied the accusations, whilst Las Vegas Police re-open their investigation. Some people suggest that the fact a settlement was paid legitimises Ronaldo’s guilt – yet it would be naïve to suggest that these sort of NDAs and settlements don’t happen all the time. This is because professional footballers, and celebrities in general, often face campaigns targeted against them to somehow smear their name or extract money through legal measures.
We only have to look back half a decade to see the real dangers of false rape accusations on professional footballers. This is by no means stating that the accusations against Ronaldo are in fact fake, or that they are real, just that at the moment they remain accusations. In April 2012, Welsh footballer Ched Evans was convicted for a rape charge that took place in Rhyl, Wales in 2011 and was sentenced to five years in prison. After spending half his sentence in prison, Evens was released, in October 2014. Upon his return, many clubs got a tough time for considering re-employment of the Welsh forward.
As Sheffield United were the last club Evans played for before his arrest, the PFA told the club they could train him – to which many patrons resigned and British athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill threatened to ask for her name removed from a stand at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane. Evans eventually found a new club in June 2016, just after he had taken his initial conviction to the appeals court and, just four months later in October 2016, a retrial took place and Evans was found not guilty.
To summarise; Evans was convicted, lost his job and spent nearly two and a half years in prison – for a charge that was initially demanded legitimate and later deemed false; leaving Evans an innocent party. Evans was one of Wales’ brightest stars at the time, on the road to completing a 29-goal League One season when he was sent to prison and having played for Manchester City in the past. Evans played 13 times for Wales before his conviction and has not played for the national team since.
Evans was just 22 when he was convicted and, therefore, missed the years of his career when a player can really grow and develop. Although the same would not apply to Ronaldo, the overall message stays the same. That these smear campaigns, when they do happen, can be damaging to lives. Although in no way is a victim of false rape accusation comparable to an actual victim of rape, it can destroy the victim’s life in a different way.
With footballers stacked with money, constantly in the public eye and with typically ‘boyish’ behaviour, they are easy victims for those looking to gain media attention or money. The Ronaldo case will now be investigated but it will not all be cut and dry. It is difficult to prove a rape which took place ten years ago, with very little evidence. No matter what happens, Ronaldo’s name has already been tarnished and Juventus’ stock market value hit. Ched Evans is still a name that many would associate with rape because of just how damaging the false allegations were.
The connection between rape and football is, for some reason, strong – and it is one that must be quashed.
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