Villarreal has announced the signing of the former Arsenal and Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey for a one-year-old deal. The move has received a lot of criticism because of the continuous legal proceedings of Parey.
On Tuesday, Pedey appeared in the court in London to respond to five charges of rape and one indictment for sexual violence established by two victims. Pedey has defended his innocence against the alleged charges, but that has given him little grace of a large part of Villarreal fans. The 30-year-old is currently on bail.
Since the reports of the relocation first emerged, Villarreal fans went to social media and written to the club to express their rejection and disgust about the idea of signing Pedey. At one level it seems that the club has at least noticed this, tackles the issue directly, but has not heard it, still continue with the move.
Villarreal typically announced the signature on social media, but then confirmed an addendum to their post. During the statement, Villarreal says that they 'respect the suspicion of innocence', and so wait for the statement about the issue. They say they will not comment further, because it is a legal issue and that they condemn all the acts of violence.
The club is aware that the player is involved in legal proceedings in England. The player maintains his innocence determined and denies all charges against him. The club respects its suspicion of innocence as a fundamental principle and waits for the court's decision, which will be responsible for clarifying the facts that it is accused of. Taking into account the British legislation with regard to current procedures, the club will not comment further on this issue.
Villarreal CF wants to repeat its fixed dedication to respect and diversity and condemn any act of violence in all its forms, whether it is gender, discriminatory, racist, xenophobic or behavior that violates human dignity.