Oh yeah sure, I didn't mean an actually meaningful statement. Just some hollow business words about continuous improvement and processes, anything other than claiming it was 100% correct
Thomas Partey | 12th February 2026: Charged with two new counts of rape
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In the latest edition of the United Hour Podcast, we interview Duncan Drasdo of MUST - covering ticket prices, new stadium, INEOS and what fans should be demanding from our club.
Also, due to technical issues we couldn't put a notice up for the previous episode which was about the game against Bournemouth and other stuff. If you'd like to listen to it, click here.
It's also because it touches on a wider point of how football deals with these issues, misogyny in general etc.
Well there you have it then.
I don't think it's acceptable in a civil society to expect anyone to have their lives frozen for four years. If there had been no charges filed after such length of time, that would have been tantamount to a miscarriage of justice. For potential victim and perpetrator alike.
Your post is basically an argument against the validity of suspension.
I agree with this, someone more senior at the club like a head of HR or a CEO should be making a statement so Arteta can just refer to that and not have to answer questions about it. I presume Arteta backed keeping him playing, but I don't know for sure. What is certain is it would not have been him making the final decision on it.
In the proportion it comes out here, it comes across as tribalism skewing the picture most of all.
Very true.
There's definitely some chickenshit dodging happening at higher levels both at Arsenal and the FA and the premier league.
Arteta shouldn't be answering any questions on this really.
You would be suspended by your employer pretty sharpish in any other business if you rocked up for work accused of sexual assault nevermind rape
And if that went on for some months, that is perhaps tolerable.
The four year frame of the investigation is what puts this in a different light.
I think you're misunderstanding the post, it's not about the four years, it's about clubs taking a stand against sexual violence. If there is an arrest, I fully believe any club should suspend the player. If it takes 4 years bad luck, I'm sure the clubs could get insurance for this, but as stated earlier 4 years is very unusual.
When Bissouma was arrested for an alleged sexual assault in a nightclub, Brighton carried on playing him, I wrote to Paul Barber, the Brighton CEO to say how I felt this was wrong, the police investigation was dropped a few months later, but he should not have been playing for those months.
You talk about how awful it must have been for the victims with the investigation taking so long, but what about how they felt every time he was announced in an Arsenal line up, or appeared on their social media portrayed as footballing hero etc. What about the message it sends other rape victims or women in general? or to other footballers who think that they can just carry on regardless? Football needs to do a lot more to stand up to sexual violence and Arsenal have done the exact opposite.
If you're accused of rape/sexual assault by multiple people, then yes you should be removed from first team duties (on full pay) and given the complications of investigating such a case then you should expect it to be for quite a while.
Good post. Agree.
Then at that stage they keep checking with their legal advice what to do.
They handled this badly from day one keeping him on the pitch and in the spotlight in general.
If I was a victim I’d want to know how many more girls were attacked after the first report to Arsenal then I’d go to town on Arsenal’s family reputation.
If it goes to court and he gets convicted I’d be getting a case against Arsenal prepared.
My point is that I think the argument is misplaced. That is the fault of the police's drawn out investigation, moreso than Arsenal.
In terms of the message it sends and such, there really should be an FA policy on how to handle such cases. Including when and if to suspend and when and if to lift such a suspension if the investigation has no clear end in sight.
I maintain the biggest travesty here is that the police took four years to raise charges. I can't believe I am the only one seemingly saying that.
Tribalism on a football forum. No way!
Arteta is a shameless coward
This guy, seriously...
Strongly disagree.
You should never suspend a player based on an allegation before the matter has been resolved in court because it means punishing a man who may be innocent.
If suspending players based on an allegation became the norm it would encourage unscrupulous rivals to fabricate a charge against key opponents prior to key fixtures in order to have them suspended.
Paying a prostitute to cry rape against a star player of a rival club is not difficult to arrange. It would be an attractive ruse by club owners, a betting syndicate or obsessed supporters desperate for their team to win. It wouldn't matter if the scam was subsequently exposed, the damage would have already been done.
Just because a man has been arrested does not mean he is guilty. The Police have a long track record of arresting and charging blameless individuals. Innocent until proven guilty is an established principal for sound legal reasons which should not be abandoned because the alleged perpetrator is a footballer.
Do you honestly believe that this would happen?
You're talking about committing illegal activity here. I seriously doubt even the most morally dubious of clubs would resort to paying people to file fake allegations against players from rival clubs
No, look at Mendy. His City career was over despite no guilty verdict and he was robbed years of his best time. He did receive some money in the end but being a top level footballer was effectively over.
Let the police investigate as long as it takes but until he's proven guilty, let him carry on.
Please provide an example of this happening literally anywhere??
It could be that suspending a player while they are under investigation is the best possible option, all things considered.
It wouldn't make it a good option, though. Just the best out of a bunch of bad ones.
It wouldn't make it a good option, though. Just the best out of a bunch of bad ones.
No sane club owner would do this as it would quickly be obvious there was no case to answer and they'd end up in court themselves and possibly barred from owning a club. As for betting syndicates or obsessed supporters, it's a possibility, but there has to be a reasonable case in the eyes of the police before there's an arrest. This is all highly unlikely.
For the last time.. SUSPENSION ISNT A PUNISHMENT.
Mendy was suspended when he was charged, the mistake City made was not paying him and he got his wages back eventually for all the time he was suspended except for when he was held in prison. All I am saying is while under investigation for rape and sexual assault you shouldn't get picked for the first team and be promoted publicly, but you can train and get full wages.
Crime and money are natural bedfellows, it would not surprise me at all.
I think it's pretty daft to assume it, particularly due to the points made by other posters.
The imagination of the criminally inclined is boundless. Bribing players to throw a game was an issue in England during the 1950's that was quickly stamped out. If suspending a player because he was charged by the Police became common practice then making a false allegation would be a tempting crime.
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Something similar took place at OT during the SAF era when the flood lights failed during a mid week game with the score at 0-0. The game was cancelled but bookies paid out on the unexpected “result”. The cause of the failure was never explained but the suspicion was that a Far East betting syndicate was responsible for disconnecting the power.
I appreciate that is not on the same scale that I suggested but, if a betting scam was the cause, it was an audacious and presumably profitable stunt.
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In the Mendy trial, one of the charges was dropped because:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/ar...tially-cleared-of-rape-charges_6011563_7.html
What was the motivation of that person pursuing criminal charges against Mendy? It's not exactly what's suggested, but
If footballers are going to be suspended for any accusation they face. They'll be in position where anyone they've slept with can have them "over a barrel". It's a no lose situation for the accuser ?
When you've got footballers being stalked like Mount was after he slept with her. You can imagine the risks.
Suspension before charges is crazy. The way to deal with it, is for a case to be built and charged and arrest to happen simultaneously. Not arrest Partey in 2022, so he'd have been suspended for 3 years!
A player is automatically suspended for a red card offence. It's the punishment for a sporting, not a criminal, offence. However, it's still a punishment.
NB If that sounds patronising I apologise, it's not my intention.
I can't respond to further criticisms of my earlier posts, I'm a Newbie and out of ammo for the day.
Kind regards,
So your evidence is purely speculative and not at all related to the hypothetical you floated?
Should have stopped after the bolded. The Mendy case is irrelevant because there's no indication a rival club paid one of the accusers
Suspension obviously CAN be punishment, as @Bartondale points out…
The reason it is not a punishment following an arrest is that the accused has not been proven to have done anything wrong. In fact, there is insufficient evidence for them to be charged (at that point). So any action taken against them cannot be a punishment, by definition.
However, that makes it even more important that the employee cannot be suspended indefinitely. That is the rationale behind the PFA bringing in rules that effectively bar clubs from suspending their members for more than two weeks in cases such as this.
Arteta’s response in the presser to the question “Do you feel the club followed all the right processes?”, was “100%, yeah.” That’s true. There are several awful decisions made by the club that are not covered due process (promoting Partey on our website/socials, praising him in interviews and especially offering him a new contract). These all show horrible judgement and are stain on the club’s reputation.
However, the decision not to suspend Partey doesn’t fall into that category. Arsenal had only three viable options:
1) Not suspend the player
2) Suspend the player for two weeks
3) Suspend the player indefinitely
Each have problems. Arsenal chose (1) and have been derided for it. (2) Wouldn’t have changed a great deal, as Partey would have been in the same legal situation at the end of the two weeks. And (3) would have opened Arsenal up to legal action as it is breach of contract as highlighted in the quote from The Athletic article above.
We can say that a player being suspended for several years isn’t punishment, but that is quite disingenuous. And if we’re saying that is what should have been done as it was the safest course of action, that’s fine - I’m inclined to agree. But we have to be clear what the tradeoffs are in doing so.
In the context of employment law, it is not a punishment.
https://www.acas.org.uk/suspension-during-an-investigation
You're still allowed to use multi-quote as a newbie I think, if that helps for future posting
I’m aware, as I pointed out…
What it’s called doesn’t change the reality of what it is, a four year suspension. That is a quarter of a player’s entire career.
Of course, in a situation where the club went against legal advice and suspended Partey for four years and he was subsequently charged, tried and convicted… I, as would pretty much everyone, would feel great about that decision. But that hypothetical makes it clear that an indefinite suspension is effectively a punishment - it’s just that in that case it would have just been delivered a little early.
It wouldn't need to be a 4-year suspension. At work at the moment, if I have the energy I'll elaborate on this point later.
It's definitely a shady area in terms of Arsenal actually taking action before charges, or even a verdict on the case.
However, the unexplainable for me is more around why they didn't look to ship him on at any stage, the rumours the club were actively looking for a new deal with Partey, and having this guy in promos and what have you. Essentially, there seemed to be zero effort from the club to maybe distance themselves from the player in what limited way they could.
This was football's worst kept secret, and I remember when Partey was suspended for the PSG tie at home I think it was, there was such a lengthy discussion on TNT about how he would be missed and I remember thinking 'Imagine the allegations are true and one of the victims is at home watching this'.
It must have been like reliving the trauma all over again and for the victims. If it is true, here is Partey having his best season in an Arsenal shirt, playing on the biggest stage in Europe and going about his life making obscene amounts of money, while the lives of women have potentially been ruined forever.
I think all senior officials at Arsenal should have some serious inner reflection, and moreso this is really highlighting a bigger issue in football as a whole. These are not normal people. It might be your daughters favourite player, or your teams talisman. These are superstars with their own fanatic supporters, and the wider consequences of a general apathy or lack of action is not right.
Legally, Arsenal can probably claim they dealt with this in the correct manner. Morally, it's all pretty horrible and they seem to be getting a relatively benign reaction from what I've seen (may not be fully true, I haven't followed it as close as others).
However, the unexplainable for me is more around why they didn't look to ship him on at any stage, the rumours the club were actively looking for a new deal with Partey, and having this guy in promos and what have you. Essentially, there seemed to be zero effort from the club to maybe distance themselves from the player in what limited way they could.
This was football's worst kept secret, and I remember when Partey was suspended for the PSG tie at home I think it was, there was such a lengthy discussion on TNT about how he would be missed and I remember thinking 'Imagine the allegations are true and one of the victims is at home watching this'.
It must have been like reliving the trauma all over again and for the victims. If it is true, here is Partey having his best season in an Arsenal shirt, playing on the biggest stage in Europe and going about his life making obscene amounts of money, while the lives of women have potentially been ruined forever.
I think all senior officials at Arsenal should have some serious inner reflection, and moreso this is really highlighting a bigger issue in football as a whole. These are not normal people. It might be your daughters favourite player, or your teams talisman. These are superstars with their own fanatic supporters, and the wider consequences of a general apathy or lack of action is not right.
Legally, Arsenal can probably claim they dealt with this in the correct manner. Morally, it's all pretty horrible and they seem to be getting a relatively benign reaction from what I've seen (may not be fully true, I haven't followed it as close as others).
Again, the fault of all this lies with the police, not arsenal.
Being investigated is simply not something that should have serious repercussions for one's life. It's frankly axiomatic to a just society.
This is over simplifying the complexities of rape convictions, the fact that it is extremely difficult to prove and the fact that such a small % of reported instances actually make it to prosecution, never mind conviction, in my opinion.
I'm not even talking about Partey here, innocent or not. In the UK the stats suggest that only a very small percentage (less than 5%) of reported rape cases even get prosecuted, but the conviction rate of those that do get prosecuted is something like 60%.
So clearly it is extremely hard to meet the threshold for evidence of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and given the magnitude of this case and the profile of the person in question, maybe that's driving the time delay. But the data suggests that those that do get prosecuted get convicted at a pretty high rate.
Again, legally you'd have to say Arsenal have followed proper order here. Morally, I find it hard to believe the club was ignorant that the police were building a case against Partey over a number of years, which more likely than not has tangible evidence which they feel is worthy of a conviction, given the stats above.
This situation clearly doesn't fall into the binary view of the justice system.
You’re looking at it retrospectively though. Arsenal made no attempt to suspend him and we don’t even know if they conducted an investigation themselves or what they found.
It’s as though they simply ignored it and carried on regardless. I’m not sure how you’re comfortable with that?