Joseph Muscat calls on Hibs not to sign convicted rapist

A decision by Hibernians FC to offer former Welsh international striker and convicted rapist Ched Evans a six-month contract sparked off a controversy both here and in the UK.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warned the management of Hibernians FC that footballers are role models and that signing Evans could damage the reputation of their club and, to an extent, the reputation of Malta.

“I hope the management understand this clearly before making a final decision,” Muscat said.

It was, however, very much against the vein of what Justice Minister Owen Bonnici had tweeted less than an hour earlier.

“If we believe in the rehabilitation of prisoners, we should practise what we preach,” Bonnici said, arguing that Evans should be given a second chance.

The UK Ministry of Justice ended up shooting down Hibs’ dreams of signing the football pariah, saying that Evans, as a convicted sex offender on licence, was barred from working outside the United Kingdom.

Evans, 26, was released from prison in October after serving half of a five-year sentence for raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room who was deemed too drunk to consent. His victim has reportedly had to change her name and move house five times after being repeatedly identified by Twitter trolls, supporters of Evans. Since his release, Evans has maintained his innocence, describing the rape incident as “an incredibly foolish decision” and refusing to apologise to his victim.

When reporting yesterday’s developing story, the British media quoted Hibernians vice-president Stephan Vaughan as saying that the club had spoken to Evans’ agent and had offered him a deal until the end of the season. However, club secretary Steve Abela said that Vaughan is the club’s sponsor and a spokesman for Evans later denied that Hibs had even submitted an offer to him.

Hibs’ technical director, Jeffrey Farrugia, had told Sky Sports News that Evans made a ‘mistake’ and that his club was willing to offer him a second chance.

“He was punished and he did his sentence so he should have a second chance, and our club is ready, the door is open for him to start his new career again in professional football,” Farrugia said.

When Evans was invited to train with Sheffield United back in November, television presenter Charlie Webster quit as club patron, Olympian Jessica Ennis-Hill asked for her name to be removed from one of the stands at Bramall Lane, and two shirt sponsors threatened to quit. Sheffield United ended up retracting their decision to allow Evans to train with them, saying that they had not anticipated the intensity of the public reaction.

However, Farrugia shrugged off concerns that something similar could happen in Malta.

“I can’t understand sometimes how English football, English clubs, think about all these things. Everybody must have a second chance. He paid for what he did, for us it’s not an issue. He’s a big asset for our club, to have the big quality of this player join our club. We need players like him in Malta.”

‘Evans deserves a second chance’

Shadow home affairs minister Jason Azzopardi, honorary president of Hibernians FC and a dedicated Hibs supporter, told MaltaToday that Evans deserves a second chance.

“I am not saying this because I support Hibernians,” Azzopardi told MaltaToday. “I’d have said the same thing if I was a supporter of Comino FC or Timbuktu FC.

“It would be a completely different situation if we were talking about a convicted paedophile working at a football nursery, but what’s wrong with employing a footballer found guilty of rape if he is no longer a danger to society?” Azzopardi questioned. “Can anyone guarantee that every footballer playing in Malta has a clean conduct?”

In a dig at the government, he said that Muscat “is the last person” who should preach morality over the Evans issue given how he had embraced former Labour candidate Cyrus Engerer back into the fold as a “soldier of steel”.

He also made reference to a charity football game held last month between inmates, MPs and personalities. “If, for argument’s sake, one of those inmates was a sexual offender, would he be disallowed from playing for a Maltese football club after he is released?” Azzopardi asked. “After all, that charity football match was held to promote the message that inmates can be reintegrated and give something back to society.

“Are there exceptions to reintegration?”

The Malta Football Players Association shared similar sentiments.

“People who pay for their mistakes through jail-time deserve a chance to rehabilitate and reintegrate by practising the trade that they know,” MFPA secretary Konrad Sultana told MaltaToday. “Somehow, singers who abuse of drugs get treated like heroes, while errors committed by sportspeople stick to them for life.”

He also pointed out that while footballers are considered to be role models in England, this was “absolutely not” the case for footballers plying their trade in Malta.