Manchester United have been slammed for making a profit from the sale of Mason Greenwood to Marseille and told to donate the transfer fee by a domestic abuse campaigner.
Greenwood, who spent last season on loan at Getafe in La Liga, joined Marseille in a €30 million (£25m) deal this week, despite a backlash from fans of the Ligue 1 outfit.
United faced a backlash too after it emerged the club were thinking about keeping the attacker last year, after charges of attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm were dropped due to key witnesses withdrawing their involvement.
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Speaking to i, domestic abuse campaigner David Challen and activist said: “Man Utd’s a massive global sports club that rakes in hundreds of millions a year and that they didn’t release a player – which they could have done quite easily – and chose to retain him for their own financial needs, really prioritises the financial needs of the company above women.”
Challen was also critical of United’s minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS group, claiming they have no interest in women’s football and are only interested in success for the men’s team.
“It seems to be a phase of the vision of what’s happening at Man Utd anyway,” he said. “It’s a disturbing insight into the culture at Man Utd and how they are treating women, pushing them quite literally to the side and the periphery of the club. He [Sir Jim Ratcliffe] cares about success on the pitch for the men’s team but the women won a major trophy [the FA Cup] and he wasn’t even there.
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Mason Greenwood in action for Manchester United. (Image credit: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
And he added: “It just doesn’t seem like the club cares, even on a basic level, about women and girls. They didn’t even engage with women’s charities until the 11th hour, the fact they can’t donate to one of those charities or maybe a charity in the local area, it’s woeful, especially for a club of Man Utd’s size.
“Services nationally are crippled and need funding, even in the local area. It’s staggering but unfortunately, it’s not surprising, because they had the chance to release him but they didn’t.”
The article has faced a backlash from fans online, even though some United fans and journalists have recognised that the Greenwood situation has not been handled well by the club.
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