By Kabelo Mollo
The time has once again come for me to wander in to treacherous territory. As ever this is when I opine on matters that have divided opinion and threatened to boil over. In this case we have a young footballer Mason Greenwood.
A future star for Manchester United. A kid so talented he has been heralded as a generational talent. He’s barely 22 years of age and has already scored all kinds of goals for United. He has however, had some off the field issues.
His first transgression was an incident during lockdown wherein he and England teammate Phil Foden broke Covid protocol by first breaking curfew and then inviting models in to their hotel where a Covid bubble had been set up. Foden was married at the time but Greenwood still seemed to face a greater backlash, and was subsequently never picked for the England national team again.
Foden’s career continued unabated. Greenwood was later fined by Man United for a few “minor” indiscretions. They are allegedly instances of him arriving late for training and camp. The kinds of petty internal matters anyone might encounter. His mercurial talent and age made it easy to excuse these slip ups.
On January 30th 2022 the whole story took a dramatic turn when Greenwood was exposed by social media posts as an abuser. Images and audio were leaked of Greenwood allegedly demanding sex from his girlfriend, while cuts and bruises she seemingly got from him where also shown. The picture was grim, even from those of us who sought to see him go from star boy to global star.
The evidence pointed to an aggressive, arrogant boy who understood societal norms to not apply to him. More importantly it suggested there was a victim who might have been dealing with this trauma over an extended period.
Much had been written already about domestic abuse during the Covid lockdown periods. It seemed like we now had a famous face to attach to those reports. I was livid as a fan and a man. How dare he act violently toward a vulnerable partner! How dare he disappoint me like that when I had such high hopes for him. That’s the kind of reaction you have if you’re a football nut like me. And so like everybody else I began to think of life after Greenwood for United, while also framing him as the villainous child star who thought the rules were for everyone but him.
Manchester United have recently announced a decision not to allow him to play for the club again. This decision comes with lots of water having run under the proverbial bridge though. Significant things have happened. The Crown Prosecution Services in England have withdrawn prosecution as the key witness (the victim) has withdrawn the charges.
Her father has been fairly outspoken since the beginning claiming this is one big misunderstanding and also defending Greenwood as a decent kid. His daughter and Greenwood have gone on to start a family. It has also emerged that the images and audio were allegedly leaked by the victim’s friends. Manchester United did a six-month investigation where they found Greenwood wasn’t guilty of the things alleged. The Athletic, a trustworthy online publication, has done some investigative work that suggests contrary to the decision announced earlier this week, United had actually intended bringing Greenwood back in to the team.
Women’s groups as well as a host of male and female Man United fans have strongly condemned that idea. United has been derided and castigated by all and sundry.
My issue is this. Man United claim their investigations have led them to believe he wasn’t coercive in his behaviour nor did he commit the crimes alleged. I sense (and maybe it’s because I still harbour hopes of star boy becoming a star) that those images and audio might have some context. I also figure United would’ve been more decisive in releasing him were the evidence damning.
I know that’s probably my patriarchal nature rearing its ugly head, but I don’t know what I don’t know. And in that case, I must presume innocence until proven otherwise.
That said, I’m aware of the countless victims whose cases are never heard by the authorities. Or the number who simply remain in abusive relationships. They say it takes At least 7 attempts to leave such a relationship. Moreover, there is Stockholm syndrome that sees the victim feel empathetic to her perpetrator. So I take all of that in to account. Ultimately I suppose United have reached the correct conclusion. The media storm would’ve been frenzied all the time. It would have been an affront to victims of spousal abuse. But even still, we should remember, we don’t know what we don’t know, and innocence must be presumed until proven otherwise.
