The Metropolitan Police in London have officially charged Thomas Partey with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault on Friday. The charges stem from incidents with three different women between 2021 and 2022, according to Crown Protective Services. Arsenal has had very little to say so far.
The news is shocking to some, but to others these charges are long overdue. On July 28, 2022, Twitter use deffnotchaur sent out a thread of tweets accusing the 32-year-old former Arsenal player of rape. The thread included several screenshots of conversations between the two discussing the circumstances of the incidents.
In the weeks surrounding the accusations, reports came out stating a professional soccer player with international reach was arrested in North London on suspicion of rape.
With the two occurrences so close together, many speculated Partey was the player reported. Partey played for Arsenal at the time, a club that famously represents north London, and only just became a free agent at the beginning of the month.
Over time, the speculation evolved into reputation. As Partey took the field against rivals throughout the years, there would be a notable increase in the amount and severity of jeers whenever the Ghanaian international touched the ball.
Through social media, thousands called for the club and the league to take action. Given the nature of the allegations and Partey’s profile, it seemed unlikely that the club was too far distanced from the situation to be able to act one way or another. This seemed to be later confirmed through reports from The Athletic.
As it seems, Arsenal implicitly took to supporting Partey, having him play a major role in the team over the last few seasons. Partey made 167 appearances for the Gunners in his time there, only slightly less than the 180 he made for Atletico Madrid where he became a global transfer target.
With the end of his contract looming over this summer, reports suggested that Arsenal heavily favored giving Partey an extension. As the deadline came and went, more revelations came to light in regards to the extent of the effort that Arsenal and manager Mikel Arteta put forth to protect Partey.
The actions and responses so far are disappointing at best. First and foremost, and horrifyingly, this isn’t a completely new situation in the Premier League.
Benjamin Mendy was arrested on charges of rape and attempted rape of two women, also in 2021. Manchester City promptly stopped playing him, and he was eventually released the following summer. Manager Pep Guardiola, who Arteta used to be a prominent assistant for, testified on Mendy’s behalf during the trial, where he was found not guilty. Mendy now plays for FC Zurich in Switzerland.
Gylfi Sigurðsson was arrested on suspicion of sexual offences with a minor in 2021. Everton parted ways. The case was eventually dropped, and Sigurðsson has since made his return to the game within the last two years, now playing at Icelandic team Vikingur.
Mason Greenwood was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault after his partner Harriet Robson shared a string of images and videos documenting her injuries. Manchester United suspended him from playing and training. The case was eventually dropped, and Greenwood then spent a year on loan at Getafe and is now permanently with Olympique Marseille.
The disappointment is not necessarily one that urges Arsenal to declare Partey guilty. These cases were dropped or found not guilty, meaning within the eyes of the law these men were technically innocent. That’s all a corporation like a major soccer club needs to feel good enough about themselves to keep people like this on their books.
It lies more in the fact that there seemed to be definite knowledge and acknowledgement of Partey’s situation and the club doubled down on defense. These other clubs didn’t wait for a verdict to take action, keeping distance on even the chance the charges were true.
These cases were met with their fair share of criticism, as many online spoke out in support of the players, feeling that the respective clubs’ actions were too drastic considering the legal results. This sentiment, which can often lead to full throated defenses of anyone accused of violent crimes, can leave a club hesitant to take outspoken action for fear of backlash or legal repercussions.
But there is more than enough reason to make this kind of call.
Clubs are not always going to stick with a player through any sort of off-field situation that could hurt the brand. Many of the bigger clubs throughout the world have shown that business interests are higher on the priority list than ever before. There’s more impetus to maintain organizational harmony, and situations like this can be a liability.
There are thousands of other players who have not been arrested for violent crimes. It seems relatively easy to avoid. It’s absolutely conceivable for a team to prefer to go that direction than to stick with a player who has been arrested.
On the player side, all three of those examples are back playing, two of them with clubs that compete regularly in European tournaments. It would be dishonest not to at least acknowledge these players’ careers were disrupted, but they didn’t fully cease. If Partey is found innocent, there’s a very non-zero chance he signs as a free agent to some other team who’s decided enough time has passed for this to be considered.
There’s an entire discussion to be had on the nature of true and false accusations and what to believe, but that’s not what this article is about. Maintaining the lens of analysing a club’s actions in these situations, there seems to be a sunk cost for clubs putting up long term defenses of someone who will either be fine without them or actually did it.
Big clubs, which are now more than ever more interested in protecting their business and financial interests, players under investigation for violent crimes are potential liabilities. They show this cut throat approach when deciding transfer decisions, it’d make sense that would apply here. It gives leeway for taking action without making a direct claim as to why or what they think about it. It’s not the most noble stance, but one corporations
Whether Partey is guilty or not, Arsenal really can’t win, nor should they. They seem to be banking on pulling an “I told you so” if the verdict ends up not guilty, though it’ll mean very little. Partey isn’t even an Arsenal player anymore, and probably won’t be again.
Obviously, it becomes much worse if Partey is found legally guilty. There’s more than enough to see how the club acted, and the attempts to keep it under wraps until he was no longer at the club reeks of knowing better, but not wanting to play without him more.
There’s a long shot that justice and accountability prevail from this situation. It’s the people in positions of power at the club that need to take responsibility, if that ever happens.
Arsenal had plenty of opportunities to take action in a relatively “safe” way. Not only did they choose not to, but they coyly did the opposite until it was no longer profitable. The club as an entity will ultimately survive, but this will be a dark blemish in Arsenal’s history.
