Imagine being a fly-on-the-wall in those Thomas Partey meetings.
When club officials had to discuss the rape allegations against one of their key players. If they had the meetings, of course. You presume they did. But we don’t know for certain.
In fact, we know very little about what Arsenal did or didn’t do when they learned several years ago that their £45m signing was arrested and questioned by police following accusations of rape, which he denies, and remained under investigation for the remainder of his contract.
But say they did have meetings: who was involved? What did they weigh up? Did they list the pros and cons of keeping him?
There are so many questions for Arsenal around decisions that were made during the years that Partey was under investigation while continuing to help the club fight for titles and trophies.
Who knew what? When did they know? Why did they decide to keep playing him?
Did the conversation change when the second accuser came forward? What about the third? What about when the Metropolitan Police handed a detailed file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) seeking to press charges?
We know that after the file was passed to the CPS in January, the club decided to offer him a new contract. Mikel Arteta, the manager, confirmed it.
“Yeah,” Arteta said when asked on 22 May if he wanted Partey to extend his time at the club. “In regards to Thomas, consistency-wise, it’s been his best season. I think the way he’s played, performed, his availability has been exceptional and he’s a really important player for us.”
Did the allegations of multiple rapes come into consideration when club officials discussed the prospect? Did anyone, at any point, suggest that maybe this wasn’t a good idea?
Since Partey was charged, Arteta has stood by Arsenal’s handling of the matter.
“The club was very clear in its statement,” Arteta said while on tour in Singapore last month. “There are a lot of legal matters that are very complicated so I cannot comment on any of that.”
Arsenal’s statement after Partey was charged consisted of two crisp sentences: one pointing out the player’s contract expired four days prior, the other that they couldn’t comment due to the ongoing legal process.
Arteta was pressed on whether he was comfortable with the processes followed. “100 per cent, yes,” he replied.
It must, of course, be mentioned that Partey “denies all the charges against him”, his lawyer, Jenny Wiltshire, said. “He has fully cooperated with the police and CPS throughout their three-year investigation.
“He now welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name. Given that there are now ongoing legal proceedings, my client is unable to comment further.”
Arsenal are usually proud of following the rules and doing the right thing. And in plain legal terms, this country operates under the premise of innocent until proven guilty. Which is completely fair.
But, also, let’s not pretend this is such a simple equation. It is highly complicated when those accused are public figures or in positions of responsibility. This is an issue full of grey areas.
In a purely legal sense, Arsenal did everything right. Simon Leaf, head of sport for law firm Mishcon de Reya, explained it in detail to me, even highlighting the exact clauses in the Premier League’s 800-page handbook with relevance.
Like all players, Partey signed a standard Premier League contract with Arsenal. His contract could be terminated if he was convicted of a criminal offence imprisonable for three months or more, so not applicable in this case as Partey was not even charged until after his contract expired.
The other option is termination for “gross misconduct”.
“This is a high-bar and would have probably meant that Arsenal would have needed to demonstrate that the player ‘knowingly or recklessly’ did something ‘which is likely to bring the club or the game of football into disrepute’,” Leaf says.
“Whether this would have been successful or not, really turns on the facts, which are yet to fully emerge. Arsenal had the right to undertake its own disciplinary investigation during which a club may suspend a player for up to 14 days on full pay.
“It is unknown whether the process was followed in this particular case but, based on advising other clients on disciplinary-related matters, I would be surprised if Arsenal did not at least take this step to try to ascertain and establish more of the relevant details relating to the allegations.”
If Arsenal had terminated Partey’s employment, the Premier League contract gives a player 14 days to challenge it, which would be heard by an independent panel. This could be further appealed to the Premier League Appeals Committee.
“Pending the outcome of the appeal, the club could have suspended the player for up to six weeks and without pay, if the club’s board of directors decided to do so, as well as banning the player from the club’s property, such as the stadium and training ground,” Leaf says.
“The overarching principle of a person being ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is extremely relevant here.
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“Nevertheless, the club will have alienated some of the public by continuing to play the player in spite of what are extremely serious and troubling allegations.”
That said, other professions and industries, such as the Church, have suspended those accused before charges were brought.
Footballers are role models, idols to children, worshipped by fans. Their names carry great weight, their faces beamed everywhere.
You could argue that removing Partey from the playing squad would have inadvertently given away his identity after initial news stories were published with scant details of a Premier League footballer being arrested in north London.
Yet another Premier League team did suspend a player in similar circumstances in recent years.
And, regardless, that argument of privacy was significantly weakened when it soon became known, on social media, who the player was. It wasn’t hard to find.
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