As soon as I heard it my gut reaction was I don't need to know anything about his case at all, he's been convicted by a court, people who have heard all the evidence decided he was guilty of a horrible crime. If he is innocent, I wish him luck with his appeal and getting his career back. But convicted rapists shouldn't have a high profile place in football, for the same reasons given by the sponsors who have backed out of deals with Oldham - it suggests a lack of decent values for clubs to employ them. If Spurs were to sign a convicted rapist I would never go to see them again unless they came out with a strong statement reversing their policy. I've had a ST for 11 years and am a lifelong fan and I would be gutted, but I wouldn't want to be part of it. I don't want my club to say it's okay to be a rapist - yeah carry on like normal mate, we can turn a blind eye seeing as you served (half of) your time. No, I want them to have standards, ethics, principals and I want to be proud of the players, not ashamed. There should be consequences for actions as serious as this. Clubs have zero responsibility to maintain the careers of convicted rapists.
I'm disgusted by Oldham's owners and feel sorry for their fans. I'm glad this is being talked about though. I'd hope that whatever club at any level he tried to sign for would have too much respect for themselves and their fans than to want a rapist on their books.
And now it looks like Evans's soon to be father-in-law is bank rolling the signing, the wages, and compensation if all the sponsors leave and the club suffers financial losses. What a lucky girl, and a wonderful life they'll have together that family, can't see anything going wrong there.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...lub-after-family-put-2m-on-table-9963909.html