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Alleged Premiership football rape brings game into disrepute

I heard on IRN (Independent Radio News) today that lawyers connected with certain Premier Football stars are threatening to sue a man in connection with e-mails he has sent to his mates naming Premier football players in gossip about the weekends rape allegations.

For those not in the UK a 17 year old girl has reported to police that seven Premier footballers raped her after she had consensual sex with a player from another team. This is an allegation at present and until anyone is found guilty all parties are adjudged to be innocent.

The way that 'Premier' footballers conduct themselves can be appalling. Much of the youth of Britain look up to these players - is it any wonder that crime and drugs abuse is rampant in Britain? If this barbaric act is proved to have taken place then there is one team that is going to end up with 7 players out of their squad behind bars for many years - and hopefully the club will fold, as by rights it should do for not having codes of conduct for its players.

Of course it could be that the girl is just seeking publicity but right now who would the public believe - a 17 year old football fan or seven highly paid top footballers. My guess it would fall on the girls side.

But this has serious implications for users of e-mails. Most people tend to use e-mail in a very informal way but under present law the act of sending someone an e-mail could be considered as publishing - in which case slander laws come into play and can be quite serious. Is this the end of office gossip? Possibly, but more likely it will only stop gossip about people who can afford large law teams. Is that a bad thing? Probably. Meanwhile several football forums have had to shut down today because too many people are conjecturing at who is implicated. (No guesses here please!)

With a story like this in all forms of the media the one big question everyone wants to know is who.


I think it's an appalling situation and feel sorry for the girl and disgusted with football players. If you want to find out clues to who might have been named in the alleged rape case, you could check last weekends papers for a west London based game that ended up with a 7-1 score.

Update!

October 2005
Unbelievably another Premier footballer has got himself into a rape charge situation. Either these idiots are too thick to understand the potential consequences of such a claim or they are too thick to realise when they are being set up.

They might not care if they are falsely accused as it will give them street creed. What they don't realise is that in 20 years time when their own daughters potentially get attacked by some rapist that they are partly responsible for changing the standards of the community that we live in.

The current persona of English Premier League footballers is thick, rich, arrogant sex pests. If they could play at international level as well as they play around then England would have no trouble winning the next World Cup.

Daily mail take on the allegation

Posted by Simon at October 1, 2003 6:38 AM

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Comments

1 October 5, 2003 2:03 AM Simon

No comments??? Over the past two days over 1,200 people have visited this site because of this article (stats = referrer's from Google) - and not one person has had a comment to make - outstanding! What does thus tell us about the populace -that they are wanting gossip without the associated baggage of making their moral position known. Hmmmm.

2 October 5, 2003 12:26 PM TJ Hooker

Should "artical" be spelt 'article' or is it some whizz-bang web technical term?

3 October 5, 2003 12:35 PM Simon

Pants. My spelling always lets me down. Changed.

4 October 6, 2003 2:24 AM Hulton Harty

A disgrace to football, but a person is still inocent until proven guilty, remember John Leslie the players involved should not be named until trail.

5 October 6, 2003 9:40 AM Sam

Stories sold to newspapers, Max Clifford involved, "party organisers" and the like as witnesses - it doesn't matter who's involved, the whole case is not just a disgrace for football but also for our justice system. To prevent any miscarriages of justice or trials being compromised there should be a law preventing papers from buying victims/accusers/accused stories, and publishing sensationalised accounts, at least until after such cases have been resolved through the proper proceedings. That might cut down on lots of John Leslie-esque scenarios, while also protecting the rights of both accused and accuser to privacy until the matters have been resolved.

6 October 8, 2003 8:28 AM Fastfingers

This is just another example of the consequences of allowing young men access to (Footballers) too much money at too young an age. A number of high profile players continue to bring disgrace to the game. It's high time their earnings where capped. Isn't it strange that despite protests the media DID name several media personalities accused of unsubstantiated sex offences and neither ther police nor the public objected too strongly but, now it involves football, their identity is strongly defended!