Guilty without charge – Newspaper Kommersant No. 21 (7466) dated 02/04/2023

English Premier League club (EPL) Manchester United is in a difficult situation. It was provoked by the decision of the British authorities to drop all charges of attempted rape and assault from the pupil of Manchester Mason Greenwood, who was excommunicated from the team and deprived of his salary more than a year ago. In a statement from the club on this matter, it is noted that Manchester United intends to conduct an internal investigation and only after that decide what to do with Greenwood. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old striker is a fairly expensive asset. Before the football player got into trouble, his transfer fee was estimated at €50 million.

“Manchester United” got into a difficult situation, which in many ways he himself provoked. In January last year, British police arrested Manchester midfielder Mason Greenwood (he was later released on bail). The reason was the statement of his girlfriend Harriet Robson. In the spirit of the times, it was published on Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned), where the girl posted a photo in which she appeared with a bloodied face. “To anyone who wants to know what Mason Greenwood is really doing to me,” read the caption under the post. Later, Ms. Robson also published an audio recording of a conversation, presumably with Greenwood, in which it was heard how the player persuaded her to have sex against her will and threatened with violence.

The reaction of the Western public turned out to be in line with the spirit of the time: Greenwood was declared guilty in advance. It was immediately abandoned by all sponsors, including the largest – Nike. And Manchester United, without waiting for the results of the investigation, removed his pupil from the games (Greenwood played 83 matches for Manchester United, in which he scored 22 goals, in addition, the midfielder had one game for the England national team on account), stopped paying his salary, removed him from selling all goods with his name and generally tried to pretend that such a player simply did not exist. So did the creators of the video game FIFA-2022: Greenwood was simply cut out of it. At the same time, Greenwood’s contract was not terminated. It is valid until the summer of 2025 and assumes that he earns £75,000 a week. That is, since January 2022, the Manchester players have underpaid the football player by more than £4 million.

However, the case against Greenwood fell apart. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that all key witnesses have retracted their testimony, and that new evidence has emerged to exonerate the footballer. These circumstances left the authorities no choice but to drop all charges against Mason Greenwood completely, the statement said. But instead of the alleged full restoration of Greenwood’s rights, Manchester United issued an indistinct statement in which he explained that he would not return the midfielder to the team for the time being and would wait for the results of some kind of internal investigation. Whether it will be more effective than what was carried out by the authorities is not clear. Did not clarify the situation and Manchester head coach Eric ten Hag. At a press conference on Friday, he declined to answer questions about Greenwood.

At the moment, Manchester United have a choice between two bad options. The first is to pretend that the player’s excuse did not happen and leave him out of the game. Such a step may be prompted by fears that Mason Greenwood will consistently be obstructed by that part of the fans who do not agree with the decision to drop the charges against him. And the sponsors of the team may not agree that the “stained” player will reappear in the roster. However, in such a case, Manchester should be prepared to pay around £4m a year to a player they can’t use. The second option is to sell Greenwood to a team outside the Premier League. It is easier in terms of maintaining reputation or how it is understood in England, but it still threatens with financial losses. Greenwood was valued by Transfermarkt at €50 million at the time of his removal from the squad. After his arrest, the estimate was canceled. For how much now you can sell Greenwood, one can only guess. But it is obvious that potential buyers are using the current situation in order to bring down the price as much as possible.

Alexander Petrov