Premier League players

There was the police investigation, now dropped, into an alleged sexual assault case involving Yves Bissouma while he was a Brighton player and that was still ...

It is a difficult backdrop to what has otherwise been a season of drama and excitement and leaves many questions. Some of the clubs whose players have been involved have been liaising with one another about how to handle it from a PR perspective. “And we know that not every woman wants to go to the police because it (reporting rape) is a really harrowing process. So hooking it (the club’s position) to a police charge or criminal trial is insufficient, ultimately.” It seemed absurd then, and it seems absurd now, but it is also worth pointing out that the Sunderland case was not the norm. [Player X has not been suspended by his club](https://theathletic.com/news/premier-league-club-player-statement/uvoBUpg58g1K/), which is a decision that will always polarise opinion, and the people at the top of that club are legally obliged to protect his anonymity. All of this has presumably happened in the case of Player X. Nobody made it a big issue, media-wise, when he represented his country in the recent [World Cup](https://theathletic.com/football/world-cup/). It was the fifth time he had been bailed and on each occasion, it has led to high-level talks at his club about what they should do next. There is serious money involved and, ultimately, that’s what comes first (to the clubs),” says Janey Starling, a director of Level Up, the feminist campaign group. The reality, of course, is that all this is virtually impossible to control in this age of social media. Another top-level player is still waiting to hear if he is to be charged, 18 months after being arrested over allegations of sexual relations with a girl under 16.