Scottish club apologizes for signing that caused backlash

Updated Feb. 3, 2022 8:36 a.m. ET

KIRKCALDY, Scotland (AP) — After a backlash and loss of sponsors, a Scottish soccer club apologized for signing a player who was ruled in 2017 to have raped a woman and said it was “committed to making things right.”

“We got it wrong,” Raith Rovers chairman John Sim said Thursday, three days after signing former Scotland international David Goodwillie.

Sim stopped short of announcing Goodwillie’s departure from the second-tier club but said "the player will not be selected by Raith Rovers and we will enter into discussions with the player regarding his contractual position.”

Goodwillie and an ex-teammate at Dundee United were ordered to pay damages of 100,000 pounds ($135,000) to a woman they raped, a judge ruled in a civil case in an Edinburgh court in 2017. No criminal charges were brought against either Goodwillie or David Robertson.

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Raith's decision to sign Goodwillie was condemned as “disgusting and despicable” by Val McDermid, a bestselling novelist who

The captain of Raith’s women’s team, Tyler Rattray, announced she was quitting playing for the team after 10 years because of the signing of Goodwillie. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave her support to McDermid and Rattray.

Sim apologized “to our fans, sponsors, players and the wider Raith Rovers community for the anguish and anger caused over the past few days.”

“This very unfortunate episode is something that we all bitterly regret and we are now wholly committed to making things right,” Sim wrote in a statement on the club's website.

Following a meeting of the board, Sim said, it was decided that Goodwillie won't play for the club and that they'll begin contract discussions.

Sim said Raith had “focused far too much on football matters and not enough on what this decision would mean” for the club and the community.

“Over the past couple of days, we listened carefully to the fans who have got in touch and I’m very grateful for their honesty,” he said. “As chairman, as a board and as a management team, we have all learned a hard but valuable lesson.”

McDermid, who has sold more than 17 million books, said the announcement was a “victory of sorts for the hundreds of people who make the club who were appalled at the board's original decision" but added that more action was needed.

“The same people who made the decision are still in charge,” she wrote on Twitter. “Those who love and value the club are still on the outside; they need to be on the inside, shaping the future for the community.”

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