Thomas Partey | 12th February 2026: Charged with two new counts of rape

Can't make any sense of the timing. Surely Arsenal are neither powerful enough to protect him from charges nor is the police willing to let it slide because/while he's at Arsenal
 
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So if he’s left the country can he be dragged back to face the charges? Surely no club will touch him with that hanging over him

Edit: then again there’s always Marseille
 
SilentWitness said:
Pretty sure there was when the rumours first began. Either one or two of the victims posted on twitter with accounts and receipts of the situation. Enough, along with being investigated to have grounds for suspending them until further notice.
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The rumors began in 2021-22, I think.

Either way, putting a player's career on ice for 3-4 years until the police decides to get their act together... That's just not actionable and the FA would lose if they attempted to make this a thing.
 
adexkola said:
Not until you are charged criminally, or there is damning evidence in the public domain (which there hasn't been, seeing that it took years for an official police force to finally charge him)

And on the second bolded point, the FA is barely competent at their primary job of looking after football affairs. Now we want them investigating charges of sexual assault against players? I think that's a job best left for the police.
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I know a close friend who was automatically suspended from their job after being accused of rape.
The fact they had done absolutely nothing wrong did not factor into the equation, took six months for the enquiry to finish and for the accusations to be dropped, they didn't work throughout that whole time.
 
Everyone knew about this. There were talks about Partey when the Greenwood stuff was going on (whataboutism).

But they’re not Manchester United. The world don’t have their pitchforks out.
 
feck him, dirty cnut. feck Arsenal for allowing him to continue playing, zero chance they didn’t know about this and lastly, feck all those Arsenal fans who stuck up for this cnut of a bloke years when the rest of us knew there is no smoke without fire.
 
JTRI said:
Dreadful from Arsenal, clearly a club with no morals. Look how differently the Greenwood situation was dealt with by United, some things are more important than football.
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We handled the Greenwood situation terribly.

The fact that he was publicly nameable made the context in terms of media reporting completely different to the Partey situation, where he couldn't be named. And forced our hand to suspend him.

But we ultimately still tried to keep him, until the public outrage forced us to U-turn from such an obviously scummy move.

Rather than highlighting some superior moral behaviour on our part, it highlights that nasty attitude in football where clubs will only take action on this sort of thing when forced to.
 
Andy_Cole said:
Everyone knew about this. There were talks about Partey when the Greenwood stuff was going on (whataboutism).

But they’re not Manchester United. The world don’t have their pitchforks out.
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I'm glad we're held to account on things like this. It's mentioned earlier in the thread but we would've probably behaved in much the same way were it not for public pressure.
 
GoonerBear said:
Why would Arsenal know? Would they have offered him a new contract if they knew?

MOD EDIT: The poster is speaking about the charges being made rather than the allegations.
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Thanks for the MOD Edit, I should have explained that initially.
 
adexkola said:
Not until you are charged criminally, or there is damning evidence in the public domain (which there hasn't been, seeing that it took years for an official police force to finally charge him)

And on the second bolded point, the FA is barely competent at their primary job of looking after football affairs. Now we want them investigating charges of sexual assault against players? I think that's a job best left for the police.
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He was first arrested in 2022. Are we supposed to believe Arsenal had no knowledge of this? He wasn't allowed to be named in the press but it was an open secret.
 
adexkola said:
The rumors began in 2021-22, I think.

Either way, putting a player's career on ice for 3-4 years until the police decides to get their act together... That's just not actionable and the FA would lose if they attempted to make this a thing.
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Greenwood didn't play for more than a year and a half after his allegations and suspension.
 
hellhunter said:
Can't make any sense of the timing. Surely Arsenal are neither powerful enough to protect him from charge not is the police willing to let it slide because/while he's at Arsenal
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It's such a shame he is being found guilty already here without having his say in court. There are always two sides to a rape allegation. Not forgetting what happened to Mendy. Arsenal were right to stick with him until he was formally charged.
 
RaddyRed said:
Is there a valid reason he is only charged once his contract is up or is it just coincidence?

Wonder if there will be the same level of focus that there was on United and Greenwood when they leaked he was potentially coming back into the squad.
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Perhaps after his contract expired there was a risk he’d leave the country and so they expedited the charge? It’s the only thing I can think of but it did look suspect to me too
 
Not only the timing with just after Arsenal releasing, but also the fact the charge happens after playing an entire season of football is also wild.
 
Whatvever about whether there was issues surrounding whether or not Arsenal could suspended him. The fact that they apparently still tried to offer him a new contract is revolting.
 
Champ said:
I know a close friend who was automatically suspended from their job after being accused of rape.
The fact they had done absolutely nothing wrong did not factor into the equation, took six months for the enquiry to finish and for the accusations to be dropped, they didn't work throughout that whole time.
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And obviously that was bullshit, which served zero purpose. Were they paid at least?

I'm of the opinion that suspension shouldn't occur until there is credible evidence that the offence may have occurred, which a criminal indictment shows. And even then, it's not an obligation at that point, simply a neutral choice by the employer. Once proven guilty, then sack them.
 
Gavinb33 said:
The whole time Greenwood wasn't charged he was being paid, Arsenal should have done the same just sent him away until investigations cleared and then bring him back in if they did, instead they didn't do anything just continued to play him week in week out
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Yes but surely the existence of actual audio evidence of what Greenwood did being posted online is a key differentiator here.
 
Perhaps the timing of this is one for PM's question time given that he is a lifelong Arsenal fan and also a former DPP and head of CPS. Go on Kemi, you know you want to.
 
Remember he has been charged, not convicted. He still may be innocent as far as we know. False allegations may have been made and often "its their words against mine". Gathering evidence may take long periods of time especially in these scenarios as DNA, victim statements etc can be difficult to gather. You don't want to be re-traumatising the victims over and over again. The timing is still very suspect though and you must wonder if it's coincidental or not?

That being said they seem to have enough to charge him now so hopefully he gets the appropriate punishment if he is found guilty.

I do wonder what's in his Arsenal contract. Usually these days contracts are air tight and you would think that to protect their brand, they would include stipulations where you have to disclose allegations and accusations made against the player. Arsenal surely knew.
 
adexkola said:
Not until you are charged criminally, or there is damning evidence in the public domain (which there hasn't been, seeing that it took years for an official police force to finally charge him)

And on the second bolded point, the FA is barely competent at their primary job of looking after football affairs. Now we want them investigating charges of sexual assault against players? I think that's a job best left for the police.
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An (alleged) survivor made their allegation public back in 2022. I won't go linking them here, but they made them on Twitter, in part due to a lack of action by the Met. So we're not just talking about rumours.
 
CM said:
He was first arrested in 2022. Are we supposed to believe Arsenal had no knowledge of this? He wasn't allowed to be named in the press but it was an open secret.
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I'm sure they had knowledge of him being arrested (I need to keep on reminding myself that being arrested in the UK simply means being questioned)

I don't think they are plugged into the criminal system to the point that they can influence the duration of the investigation. IF proven otherwise, yes heads should roll and ye have a much bigger problem on your hands
 
adexkola said:
And obviously that was bullshit, which served zero purpose. Were they paid at least?

I'm of the opinion that suspension shouldn't occur until there is credible evidence that the offence may have occurred, which a criminal indictment shows. And even then, it's not an obligation at that point, simply a neutral choice by the employer. Once proven guilty, then sack them.
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It depends what the job is and what the allegations are.
 
I find it particularly alarming that it's not an isolated incident.
 
When Gilfy Sigurdsson was arrested on suspicion of child sex offences in 2021, Everton suspended him immediately. Their statement was simply that a player had been suspended pending a police investigation, and that was it.

When Partey was arrested back in 2022, Arsenal could have done the same. Some people seem to be imagining there's some rule that a player has to be charged for the club to take action, but that isn't the case. Arsenal could have stopped playing him years ago.

It's simply the case that clubs don't take the sort of allegations levelled against Partey as seriously as the sort of allegations levelled against Sigurdsson.

If Arsenal wanted to they could have taken action, just like any other employer in that situation. They just chose not to.
 
adexkola said:
And obviously that was bullshit, which served zero purpose. Were they paid at least?

I'm of the opinion that suspension shouldn't occur until there is credible evidence that the offence may have occurred, which a criminal indictment shows. And even then, it's not an obligation at that point, simply a neutral choice by the employer. Once proven guilty, then sack them.
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I agree with this. The only 2 exceptions for me to this are:

a) someone accused of child porn offences
b) someone with clear evidence, e.g a leaked video, or screenshots
 
SilentWitness said:
The charge is a different side and unclear if they did or didn't know but there is no way that anyone in Arsenal was oblivious to the allegations surrounding him. It's been following him on social media and grounds for c. 2 years.
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Don't think it was just social media. If I remember the details correctly, the victim had reported to the UK police but they refused to do anything referencing some technicalities (something about happening in a different country or something). And this was just one accusation.
 
hellhunter said:
Can't make any sense of the timing. Surely Arsenal are neither powerful enough to protect him from charges nor is the police willing to let it slide because/while he's at Arsenal
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The Prime Minister is an Arsenal fan and repeatedly defends Reeves when she’s off raping people with disabilities…
 
sullydnl said:
When Gilfy Sigurdsson was arrested on suspicion of child sex offences in 2021, Everton suspended him immediately. Their statement was simply that a player had been suspended pending a police investigation, and that was it.

When Partey was arrested back in 2022, Arsenal could have done the same. Some people seem to be imagining there's some rule that a player has to be charged for the club to take action, but that isn't the case. Arsenal could have stopped playing him years ago.

It's simply the case that clubs don't take the sort of allegations levelled against Partey as seriously as the sort of allegations levelled against Sigurdsson.

If Arsenal wanted to they could have taken action, just like any other employer in that situation. They just chose not to.
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Unfortunate typo at the start but a good point. It's worth noting that they were also a player that was unable to be named in the uk press regarding the investigations yet we suspended them during the process and they never played for us again.
 


Makes this interview by lego head look even worse now. They knew, 100% they knew and yet they carried on as if nothing was wrong. Despicable club.
 
quadrant said:
An (alleged) survivor made their allegation public back in 2022. I won't go linking them here, but they made them on Twitter, in part due to a lack of action by the Met. So we're not just talking about rumours.
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I'm not discounting the allegations made on Twitter. I just believe that such allegations should be taken seriously by the police, and if there is a reasonable path to proceed with official charges, it should be done speedily so the accused can have their day in court

Goes without saying (but I'll say it) that if Arsenal or the Met delayed this process for the purpose of seeing out Partey's contract, there should be consequences. And I'm struggling to understand why it took 3 years for official charges to be filed

John XII said:
It depends what the job is and what the allegations are.
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School teacher accused of pedophilia? Accountant accused of fraud? Sure. If there is a direct connect between the offense and confidence in someone's ability to perform their job then remove them until doubt is erased.

I don't necessarily see that with football players (maybe unless it's spot fixing?).
 
SilentWitness said:
Unfortunate typo at the start but a good point. It's worth noting that they were also a player that was unable to be named in the uk press regarding the investigations yet we suspended them during the process and they never played for us again.
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My mind was so focused on spelling Sigurdsson properly it might have wandered elsewhere on his first name.
 
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