I feel like some people are willfully ignorant, or perhaps blissfully so, about this. The current political climate is such that even allegations are enough to make sponsors wary. To say nothing of pending investigations.
This is doubly so for us, I imagine. We already have a mess with Greenwood on our hands and who knows how or when that will be resolved. I can guarantee Bissouma's name is an absolute non-starter in the scouting room.
It’s not ignorance at all. It’s the reality of the situation as it is, and not as it isn’t. It’s typical of this tabloid society to just sweep it all into one and say it’s the same situation as Greenwood, but in legal terms it is enormously different.
And I don’t get all this talk about ‘the sponsors’, seems this is the new caf one for the moment. No sponsors would do anything if Bissouma joined us. They would if he were convicted, or even charged of something. Athletes face sexual allegations all the time, unfortunately. Sponsors don’t move on serious things like this without a charge or in Greenwood’s case, what appears to be overwhelming evidence. If Bissouma actually gave a shit about what people on the caf said, he’d probably have taken legal action against Geebs himself by now by his constant declaration of us going through the ‘same thing’ with Greenwood. Bissouma was initially bailed, and the bail has been lifted. They reserved the right to keep him on bail if they felt there was enough, just as they have done with the other party he was arrested with. But he’s been released from bail. As I’ve said a few times, ‘under investigation’ is a fairly meaningless status in and of itself, it basically means, as a base, that Police can ask you more questions if they see fit.
We keep taking about PR and sponsors and the like - Bissouma has continued playing all season with zero pressure from any sponsors or PR departments, and travelled freely without any concern from the Police. This classification of him as someone who needs to legally clear his name of anything is simply false, premature, and as I said - possibly libellous if he gave a shit about what we think. He could remain ‘under investigation’ for years, there is no time limit by law, and as someone who is familiar with the status - I know it is something the Police do wilfully and without a requirement of any strong suspicion of anything.
Of course, if he had been a genuine suspect, my tune would be different of course, but I’m not having this ‘well, there was an allegation once, that’s bad press, forget him’ - it’s not the sort of society I encourage or want men to live in. And speaking of ‘current political climate’, I disagree. If anything, following Amber Heard’s false allegations, the climate should be more cautious than anything, especially when the ‘case’ against Bissouma appears significantly more flimsy than Greenwood. They shouldn’t simply and lazily be looked at as ‘the same’.
