The news feels like a constant stream of decades old allegations of sexual assault and misconduct right now, but it’s not just American politics, it’s sports as well. Claims against footballer Cristiano Ronaldo have resurfaced from 2009, and EA have decided to remove his image from the social media channels for the FIFA games as they are “monitoring the situation.”
Giving an interview to Der Spiegel in the past week, Kathryn Mayorga alleges that Ronaldo forced her to have sex at a Las Vega hotel in July 2009. Ronaldo has responded by labelling the accusations as “fake news” and later going on to tweet that “Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.”
The claims of have resurfaced with Mayorga’s lawyer saying that Ronaldo failed to meet the terms of a $375,000 out of court settlement, which included a non-disclosure clause. They’re seeking to void the settlement, but have given interviews to German news magazine Der Spiegel in the meantime, leading to the Las Vegas police re-opening their investigation.
In a statement issued to EA, a spokesperson said “We have seen the concerning report that details allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo. We are closely monitoring the situation, as we expect cover athletes and ambassadors to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with EA’s values.”
While they have changed the banner image on the EA Sports FIFA Twitter account to one focussing on the review scores the latest entry of the game has received, EA claim that this is purely about marketing and not related. Ronaldo is still featured heavily within the game itself, and part of the FIFA Ultimate Team Ones to Watch promotion as the highest rated player in the game, and he’s obviously still on all the existing promotional material out there. While he’s been left out of the Portugal national football squad for their upcoming international fixtures, he’s been publicly backed by Juventus, to whom he transferred over the summer.
Source: Eurogamer, The Guardian, Der Spiegel
bunimomike
Strange to see this trial-by-media culture creeping in more and more. Not too pervasive yet (with Ronaldo) but from a legal perspective, if he’s found guilty and gets locked up, surely that’s the time to remove him from sponsorships, playing football matches, ad campaigns, etc.
Tuffcub
I think the fact he paid 350K to shut her up seems a bit… dodgy. If he was innocent why do that? Maybe it was easier to shut her up that way rather than go to trial and prove it, but it doesn’t look good.
Old School
To get her off his arse…
Her accepting money if she said she was raped seems a bit… Dodgy. If you were raped you would want justice, not money.
She’s a THOT. This Me Too movement has turned into the Salem Witch trials, as people guessed it would. I don’t like Ronaldo at all, never have, but he’s clearly no rapist.
aerobes
You’ve got your finger on the pulse TC, what’s the real story here?
bunimomike
Even if you’re innocent, settling out of court beforehand can save an enormous amount of time and money.
MOVE
I always considered him to be a bit of a c… or d… but when overfamous and overrich people gets accused of things like that these days, it seems they expect the public to condemn them guilty because they are rich and famous. So if Ronaldo have done something stupid (not rape but something too “forthcoming) against this woman, I wouldn’t be surprised if he forked out some cash right away.
Considering that she asked the police to stop the investigation (after accepting the money) back then, her renewed accusation seems a bit dodgy to me.
Old School
Salem witch trials continue.