Mason Greenwood may quickly be taking part in once more.
Whether the striker does – and the place – stays unclear, regardless of the rape and assault costs in opposition to him being dropped.
Manchester United desires time to think about the destiny of the 21-year-old.
One of the important thing components in its evaluation could also be whether or not the membership’s sponsors would settle for Greenwood carrying their logos, a lawyer instructed Sky News.
For a 12 months, Manchester United has left the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after the participant was accused of tried rape and assault in an investigation launched after allegations surfaced in video and pictures.
The CPS mentioned it had a “duty to stop the case” following the “withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that came to light”.
Greenwood was on the way in which to being a key a part of the Old Trafford crew when his profession was halted in January 2022 by the opening of the legal investigation.
He has remained underneath de facto suspension since, agreeing to keep away from coaching and never play.
Sponsors, together with Nike, have been faster to chop ties with him.
But Manchester United has to evaluate whether or not Greenwood’s conduct in direction of a girl ought to forestall him from taking part in for them once more.
Simon Leaf, a lawyer and head of sport at Mishcon de Reya, instructed Sky News: “Manchester United do really find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
“On the one hand, they are going to be trying on the contract and whether or not they’ve acquired the precise to terminate it.
“On the other hand, if they do take action and they do terminate the contract wrongfully, then they could well find themselves subject to a further claim by Mason Greenwood himself, who would potentially have the right to bring a claim for wrongful termination, which would effectively lead to the club having to pay out the full value of his contract.”
A graduate of the Manchester United academy, Greenwood would discover someplace on the earth wanting him of their crew.
And with a contract till 2025, he would as soon as have been valued at tens of tens of millions of kilos.
Cancelling that contract would show expensive for Manchester United, however might be the precise resolution morally, of their minds, regardless that Greenwood has not been convicted.
It might be decided by whether or not Manchester United’s sponsors can settle for seeing Greenwood adorned with their logos, and the prospect of protests in opposition to him taking part in – together with by the membership’s personal followers.
Mr Leaf mentioned: “Manchester United is one of the most valuable brands in world football and their commercial partnerships are particularly important to the club.
“Many of these partnerships will embrace very strict anti-embarrassment clauses which might successfully enable a sponsor to stroll away if they do not really feel that the membership has handled this sort of scenario appropriately and has brought about them and the membership sponsor additional embarrassment.
“So they will be very mindful of that when looking at the Mason Greenwood situation when considering whether they do need to take more decisive action to make sure their sponsors continue associating themselves with the club.”
It is a posh scenario for Manchester United to navigate, simply as the way forward for the membership is in flux with the proudly owning Glazer household looking for buyers – probably resulting in a sale.
Mr Leaf mentioned: “Clearly the present owners won’t want to do anything that may affect the value that they are able to achieve on the market.
“It’s a extremely delicate steadiness that they’re going to have to take over the approaching days and weeks on this explicit matter.”
Manchester United has set no timeframe for the internal process that will determine whether one of its brightest prospects ever plays for the club again.
Greenwood has only said that he is “relieved that this matter is now over” – providing no indication of any willpower to renew his taking part in profession.
Source: information.sky.com”