These aren’t great times for the Premier League and matters of sexual consent, so mandatory training should be welcomed, not shunned.
These aren’t exactly great times for football and matters of consent. In two different courts this week, a current player and a retired player and national team manager stand accused of fairly egregious crimes.
Both Benjamin Mendy and Ryan Giggs, it has already been decreed, have cases to answer.
Elsewhere, social media continues to hum with rumour concerning a still-as-yet-formally-unnamed Premier League player who has faced or is facing police investigations over rape. It should be added that the last update on this matter that it is appropriate to comment upon confirmed that the player concerned has had one of the charges dropped.
On top of all this sits the still-unresolved Mason Greenwood allegations that have been hanging over the game like a bad smell since the start of the year. It is absolutely fair to say that it’s unfair this case should just hang in stasis for so long, but that’s not a problem over which football holds any sway.
And this is just what’s in the public domain. There are persistent rumours concerning others and further accusations are believed to have been made which, for legal reasons, cannot be discussed. Pausing to consider what we know about the number of cases of sexual abuse that go unreported in a broader sense doesn’t bear thinking about for too long.
The season started with feminist groups and a fans’ group coming together to fly a plane over Selhurst Park during the first live TV match of the season with a banner reading ‘Kick rapists off the pitch’. It is therefore unlikely to have been a coincidence that an announcement was finally made confirming there will be mandatory consent training for all players, following discussions between the league and three organisations: End Violence for Women, the Three Hijabis and Level Up.
But the Premier League will only be kidding itself if it believes that the introduction of such training would be considered the end of the matter for campaigners, who are pushing for players to be suspended if they’re charged with sexual offences.
It’s not a completely straightforward matter. The sudden withdrawal of a player from a team for no reason could be considered to conflict with their right to anonymity until being charge with an offence.
In most workplace environments this isn’t an issue, but most employees aren’t…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…