I know who the alleged Premier League rapist is but I can’t tell you their name

There are times when I cover games when a player I cannot name, at a club I also cannot name, is booed by opposition fans every time he touches the ball.

I might not notice at first, but the booing seems out of place because it is so early in the game and the player hasn’t flown into a reckless challenge or done anything to provoke them into such a reaction.

So I will try to work out who it is. And then I realise: it’s the (alleged) rapist.

During televised games the commentators must ignore it.

Sometimes unprintable chants about the player from a loud enough collection of fans that cannot be broadcast can be heard in the stadium.

But all this is odd, because nobody is supposed to know the player’s name. Even though most football fans, and almost certainly everyone working within the game, know it.

I can’t even point out how people know his name, or it will leave The i Paper open to being sued.

I understand the right to privacy, but that surely has to be weighed against the prospect of protecting others from potential harm.

There have been a few attempts by fans of the player’s club to raise the issue. Again, I can’t repeat what they were. And the protesters were unable to mention the player’s name in an open letter.

What do we know about the player?

The allegations were first reported by The Telegraph in 2022.

On 4 July, 2022, police received a report of an alleged rape of a woman in her 20s that took place the previous month. The player was arrested in north London and questioned that day.

While in custody, another two rape allegations were reported to the police, from April and June 2021, involving a different woman, also in her 20s.

In February 2023, eight months after the first woman came forward, the player was interviewed about allegations from a third alleged victim.

The player was questioned again in November 2024, and while the police dropped enquiries into the allegation from June 2021, officers continued to investigate allegations between 2021 and 2023.

In January, The Telegraph provided a significant update: following a two and a half year investigation police had handed a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, who will decide if there is enough evidence to charge the player.

Meanwhile, while the lengthy investigation went on, the player continued to play on, for club and country.

I cannot, of course, tell you which country, or how well he played, or in what tournaments.

What we can derive from all this is that football has yet to get a grip on what to do when players are accused of sexual offences.

Currently, the game sides with the alleged rapist over the potential victims, when it could make a moral decision to change that stance.

People are, of course, innocent until proven guilty.

But in many other professions, action is taken against alleged perpetrators before charges are brought, and often even if they are cleared in the court of law.

Various approaches to the problem have been inconsistent and disjointed.

Manchester United suspended Mason Greenwood after serious allegations were made online. He was later charged with rape and assault, but the case was dropped.

He never played for the club again, although Manchester United abandoned attempts to bring him back into the first team following a backlash.

Manchester City continued to play Benjamin Mendy knowing he was under investigation for allegations of rape. They suspended the player when he was arrested. He was charged but later successfully sued the club for £11m in unpaid wages after he was cleared in court.

A player and club have never been named by UK media after the player was arrested for child sex offences. He was suspended and never played for the club again. The case against him was dropped.

At the time, to prevent what is known as jigsaw identification, the media could barely report any details about him.

The absurdity of this is that tens of thousands of fans in the stadium – I cannot tell you how many, in case you identify the stadium, and therefore the club – at their subsequent games pieced together their own jigsaw about the player who was dropped from the squad, and later disappeared from the club without so much as a word.

Again, a significant number of people know who that player is. But, obviously, I can’t name him.