There would never have been a good moment for Manchester United to reveal that Mason Greenwood could soon return to represent England’s most famous sporting club.
But for an “update” on his future to be released on arguably the most glorious day in the history of English women’s football seems grotesquely ill-judged.
While the largely male bosses at Old Trafford agonise after “intensive internal deliberation” about the 21-year-old striker, the Lionesses were sealing their place in a first World Cup final for their country for 57 years.
On Sunday morning Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo and the other semi-final heroes line up against Spain in a match that has the potential to set women’s sport alight in this country.
After all the years of sneering and patronising, women’s football would finally gain the status that it has deserved. Even if England lose against Spain the Lionesses will return as revered national champions and role models.
The truth is that if Greenwood returns to the squad, the club’s reputation will be tarnished
That is why the spotlight on the dark side of men’s football — now of all times — is so unwelcome. Of course, it has to be acknowledged that this young man faces no charges after the CPS decided there was “no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction” in February.
But there has been a pattern of unacceptable, and sometimes criminal, sexual behaviour at the elite level of the men’s game for many years now. This is surely the moment for the men — and it almost always is men — who run the game to draw a line in the sand.
Mason Greenwood was one of the most promising stars of one of the biggest clubs in the world, with a value in the open market of perhaps £100 million. Everyone understands that it is a big call for the Old Trafford top brass — and chief executive Richard Arnold in particular — to make. The financial cost alone to a business that has shares traded on a public stock exchange and has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders make it a complex decision.
But there is a bigger picture here — and it is not all about football. Greenwood was arrested in January last year after an audio recording of an alleged sexual attack was posted on social media. The claims from the alleged victim will now not be presented to a jury and tried in open court. But Manchester United has been conducting its own “fact-finding” investigation.
The truth is that if Greenwood returns to the squad, and in due course to wearing the revered Red Devils first team shirt, the reputation of the club will be tarnished. It is telling that United have had to delay communicating the outcome of their own internal investigation until it has had a chance to consult its women’s team, three of whom are with the England squad in Australia.
Manchester United revels in its reputation as the club of the Busby Babes, of the Treble, of European Cup triumph at Wembley in 1968, and the Nou Camp Champions League thriller in 1999. The club and its fans are understandably impatient for a return to glory after the lean years since Alex Ferguson’s retirement. It would be understandable if they saw Mason Greenwood as part of the path back to silverware. But it would be the wrong course. A return for this undoubtedly talented player would be an insult to the women’s game just as it is enjoying its finest hour. It would send a signal to young women and girls that men’s careers can survive behaviour that brings discredit to the game they love. It would dog Manchester United, with press conferences dominated by questions about how they could justify the decision to bring Greenwood back.
Of course, as the club acknowledges, it owes a duty of care to Greenwood, who has been with United since he was a young boy. But he is not a boy any more. Manchester United should do what it can to provide support for Greenwood as he rebuilds his life without ever forgetting what it also owes to the alleged victim. Greenwood is owed an opportunity for redemption and rehabilitation. But that should not involve pulling on that famous red shirt at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon in front of a worldwide audience of adoring fans — millions of women among them.
