The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Gaz]

If only someone had warned them this would happen!

[Kevchenko]

10 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

The fact he hasn't actually played for Raith does that count?

Sure FIFA rules are you can be registered for 3 clubs in one season, but only play for 2 of them. With not yet playing for Raith, he can still technically play for anyone disgusting enough to employ the rapist. 

[Scotty Tunbridge]

I mean I’m happy the Raith fans who now feel they will be able to return to their club while others may do so in time.

However as sad as it is Goodwillie is probably the biggest winner in this. He’s not going to walk away from his contract for nothing he’ll probably get all of his 2 and a half year deal paid up and slink off in to the sunset a richer man. As others have said if he was smart he’d disappear to the Czech second division or some pish to see his career out, but Darvel or some pish beckons IMO.

[Leith Green]

Right decision, but bizarre they didnt see this coming.

I see a few nuggets on twitter suggesting that "he shouldnt be paid a penny"......................

Unfortunately, he will be paid exactly what is stated in the contract he and Raith signed - and given his infamy, he isnt getting another football gig any time soon, so cant see why he would take a "deal" to go.

Thats kinda the law, and it will impact Raith longer term.

Frankly, the entire board (or whichever ones sanctioned this) should go as well.

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

"BuT iT dIdNaE gO tAe CoUrT"

Quite the meeting of legal minds on here this morning. 

[Ric]

I feels more a "I'm sorry I was caught", not, "I'm sorry we did that". It shouldn't take them 48 hours and endless media attention to sway their minds, it should have been obvious from the get go.

Now, there is a point to be made regarding rehabilitation within sport, and I appreciate how people will react to that, but I am not defending anything here and the eye of the storm is not the place to have that somewhat emotive topic that requires delicate nuance. Of course, all that has be driven by contrition, which we've seen little of.

The only winner here is Goodwillie, who will now be able to sit back and get a paid holiday for the next couple of years.

 

To me, this is such a bad reading of the situation, that I honestly cannot see how some board members and/or the management team can continue in their positions.

[FairWeatherFan]

14 minutes ago, billyg said:

Err , no , he's an alleged rapist , and neither you , me or anyone else knows the whole story !

Even within his own version of events he admits to breaching consent.

[Left Back]

3 minutes ago, Leith Green said:

Right decision, but bizarre they didnt see this coming.

I see a few nuggets on twitter suggesting that "he shouldnt be paid a penny"......................

Unfortunately, he will be paid exactly what is stated in the contract he and Raith signed - and given his infamy, he isnt getting another football gig any time soon, so cant see why he would take a "deal" to go.

Thats kinda the law, and it will impact Raith longer term.

Frankly, the entire board (or whichever ones sanctioned this) should go as well.

 

If they pay him off in one go it probably won't be cheaper for Raith but will cost him some money as he'll be paying higher rate tax on most of the money and lose the tax free allowances he would have got over the length of the contract had he been paid like a normal person.

[Rob1885]

I'm no rape apologist buddy , but you say evidence wasn't corroborated, yet the woman was "dangerously intoxicated" . Out of interest , how do you know that ?

Read the case files. it's all in there.

[Gaz]

3 minutes ago, Leith Green said:

Right decision, but bizarre they didnt see this coming.

I see a few nuggets on twitter suggesting that "he shouldnt be paid a penny"......................

Unfortunately, he will be paid exactly what is stated in the contract he and Raith signed - and given his infamy, he isnt getting another football gig any time soon, so cant see why he would take a "deal" to go.

Thats kinda the law, and it will impact Raith longer term.

Frankly, the entire board (or whichever ones sanctioned this) should go as well.

 

Twitter is an absolute cesspool when it comes to stuff like this.

"IT DIDN'T GO TO A COURT OF LAW" - yes it did

"WHY WASN'T THERE THE OUTCRY WHEN HE SIGNED FOR CLYDE" - there was

Not to mention the amount of folk (sadly, the majority of them men) claiming he's done nothing wrong and we've all had daft nights out when younger.

[baillieinleeds]

17 minutes ago, RRFC2711 said:

Step 1 accomplished

Berra and McDonald should’ve been installed whilst this fiasco whilst still ongoing. McGlynn/ Smith have potentially ruined everything. Go now and save what’s left of their careers

[Pull My Strings]

18 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

There was over 30 thousand words of evidence.

https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/judgment?id=d22e28a7-8980-69d2-b500-ff0000d74aa7

Without making any comment on the case whatsoever (and the judgement looks perfectly sound) you can't weigh evidence by literally counting the number of words used by someone. That's mental.

[Florentine_Pogen]

Assuming Goodwillie is a member of the Scottish PFA, Fraser Wishart might be dreading switching his PC on today.

[Exiledjag]

5 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

"BuT iT dIdNaE gO tAe CoUrT"

Quite the meeting of legal minds on here this morning. 

Not a criminal court but it did go to a civil court and Goodwille (and his pal) lost!

If I recall correctly the judge in his ruling had nothing good to say about the pair.

[FLDiamond]

8 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

No, he would have no grounds whatsoever. The reason he might lose out on future earnings is because of his own actions, namely that he is a rapist, not that Raith Rovers signed him.

This is a stupid statement.  The previous poster was correct, RR knew the Goodwillie story before they signed him.  They will have to come up with some form of decent compensation or yes, they could be sued by DG 

[Rob1885]

Berra and McDonald should’ve been installed whilst this fiasco whilst still ongoing. McGlynn/ Smith have potentially ruined everything. Go now and save what’s left of their careers

Where would you see them going out of interest? Mcglynn back to scouting and Smith back to his day job?

[renton]

We should be looking for McGlynn and Smith to walk off into the sunset at season end, for Sim to step back from the chairman role and to appoint new directors which at least helps dilute the influence of the current directors - and we should be looking for those new directors to represent a broader background and more diverse view point within the fanbase.

That'd be a start.

As for Goodwillie - who knows what is in his contract, worst case scenario we pay off the whole thing in one go, we don't know the renumeration package so hard to figure how much that will hurt. What matters is it's resolved quickly.

Next few seasons are now about consolidation and rebuilding. Stay in the division, figure out how to restructure the club in a way that prevents shit shows like this happening again and try and rebuild our financial situation  which will no doubt take a hit due to all this.

I guess the club has reached the minimum threshold for ending my self imposed boycott but I think I want some distance from it in the short term, and some evidence of progress on the other off the field matters before my head is back on straight. I need to not feel revulsion at and ashamed of the club and I'm not there yet, i don't think.

 

[third lanark]

20 minutes ago, Double Jack D said:

If that does happen then good riddance.

I'm not sure he would get another gig in Scottish football if that was his stance.

I've said above, there is a very small chance I could return with McGlynn at the helm but it depends on the detail of how the deal came about. 

To be honest mate it would have been a mcglynn decision to sign him.  There’s no way the board would say we have decided to account and sign Goodwillie for Raith.  It’s the manager who decides what players he wants to sign

[stevoraith]

45 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Nah I’m not having that. They’ve backed down due to the reaction of the fans and because they’ve realised they can’t operate with the sponsors and volunteers that have quit. Nothing to do with them realising what they did was wrong and I hope the club aren’t let off easily here.

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

A balanced take on it could be that the reaction of absolutely everybody with a shred of morality has made them realise how wrong they were.

They are absolutely the correct demographic to need educating on this stuff, hopefully they have now learned and it isn't just about putting the fire out while still maintaining that it's fuss about nothing.

[DA Baracus]

The Raith board must think very little of their fans. That newest statement is such a transparent bag of pish. It's the classic "sorry you were offended" type of nonsense. Calling it an 'unfortunate episode' is laughable. They clearly expect that the volunteers and fans will return, and possibly even the sponsors. They've totally contradicted themselves. Just read the statement that doubled down.

Raith fans can't let them get away with this. They're only furiously backtracking now because they've lost sponsorship money (listed second in the list of people they are apologising to; that in itself is telling). They still haven't apologised to anyone affected by the issue in general, or the victim of the specific incident. They tried to downplay it remember, by vaguely referring to something that happened '10 years ago'. By adding in the length of time, they tried to make less of the incident, as if it wasn't important because it happened a while ago.

They've learned 'a hard but valuable lesson' have they? Have they f**k.

How are they going to regain the trust and confidence of the 'Raith Rovers family', which the player in question was happily welcomed back in to just a couple of days ago? How are they going to show that they understand why everyone was so angry with this, and not just Raith fans? How can they be trusted to not do something like this again? They were warned, repeatedly, by previous board members, previous sponsors and many, many fans. The outright lied to Val McDermid. They were told over and over what would happen if they did this, and did it anyway, and now claim to be sorry and that they got it wrong. They expect the Raith fans to buy that?!

 

The cynic in me suspects that sadly this will be enough for some Raith fans. The others though should fight to make their feelings known, and not give up. They should go ahead with their protest on Saturday and aim it at the board and the rat McGlynn. Others have pointed out that it will be difficult to get rid of Sim, which I totally get, but they need to keep the pressure up and ensure their feelings are known.

 

As for the player, he's almost certainly done in football (zero sympathy there incidentally), at least in this country, with the possible exception of a junior club. Clyde won't take him back after everything that's happened/is still happening. There's still massive media attention over this, and they will surely want none of that. Also, it's very wishful thinking that Sim will be paying for this out of his own pocket.

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by DA Baracus