David Goodwillie scores goals – 109 in 176 appearances for Clyde FC.
He also raped a woman. Which fact is more important to you?
His goal scoring ability is clearly more important to the management of Raith Rovers FC and to their board, with the honourable exception of the two directors who have resigned over the past couple of days.
All cards on the table I’m a Hibs fan.
I spent nearly 10 years living a stone’s throw from the stadium.
It meant I could hear the crowd from my flat and guess who’d won based on the posture of the fans walking past after the match.
And I watched my team get relegated and fight like hell to get back into the Premier League, knowing how high the stakes were for the club and the fans.
The club strove for that promotion but I’m not convinced they’d have done it at any cost.
Especially when that cost isn’t financial.
When it’s the kind of cost that leaves you calculating the price of your decency, integrity, values.
Clubs are more than a crest.
They are the beating heart of their communities.
The shirts are made of polyester and pride.
But now Raith Rovers find themselves in the invidious position of having a shirt sponsor feel physically sick at the thought of their striker wearing their name across their chest.
In Val McDermid, Raith have a lifelong fan who doesn’t just sponsor the strips and stand, she invests in the development of the team at unders level, both male and female.
Think about that.
One of the clubs best known fans now fears their striker scoring because of the message the pictures will send out about her club.
David Goodwillie signing has torn Raith’s fan base apart
It took guts for Val to walk away.
But it also took heart and integrity.
I have this morning ended my lifelong support of @RaithRovers over their signing of the rapist David Goodwillie. I have cancelled next season’s shirt sponsorship over this disgusting and despicable move. This shatters any claim to be a community or family club. 1/2
— Val McDermid (@valmcdermid) February 1, 2022
And where she has gone, people have followed.
The captain of the Women’s team has quit.
On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on Wednesday, Val told us that the women’s team won’t play at Stark’s Park this weekend and are considering changing their name.
The strength of the anger is palpable.
This is not a one-day wonder of a story, it’s a schism in the fan base.
All caused by one player and his actions.
How can it possibly be worth it?
Is promotion worth this?
These fans wont forgive the signing, or indeed the striker at the heart of the story if Raith get promoted.
If you think that then you’re falling for the misguided belief that football is only a game.
Life and death? It’s far more important than that.
Official statements made a bad situation worse
Raith Rovers manager John McGlynn made a horrific mistake in saying this was “a football based decision” in the same vein as playing a 4,3,3 or 3,5,2.
This isn’t a tactic. It’s not a clever set play.
He goes on to say: “As a football manager, all you can do is try and concentrate on the game.”
But the game is so much more than 90 minutes on the pitch.
This signing isn’t a footballing decision in the traditional sense. It’s a grenade in the dressing room smoking all the good people out.
The defence from the manager and the club was described by Val McDermid as the worst press statement she’d seen in her life.
This is a woman who knows words and knows football.
When the club statement states that they’d “carefully considered” the issue and “completely respect the differing view among fans” they constructed a fiction so imagined as to be implausible.
And no one is buying it.
Val also knows about redemption and rehabilitation but everyone knows that journey starts with “sorry.”
Raith Rovers women’s team having new shirts printed without the club crest, seeking permission to change their name and will play elsewhere. @valmcdermid helping them in their efforts to distance themselves from the club and move forward in a new direction.
— Margot McCuaig (@MargotMcCuaig) February 2, 2022
It’s a five letter word that has been utterly absent from David Goodwillie’s mouth.
I wonder how long it will be before we hear it from the management?
Who really counts in the Raith Rovers family?
Perhaps the most grating part of the statement was the suggestion that because David Goodwillie had played for Raith Rovers in his youth, he was part of the family. Part of the Raith story.
Unlike the shirt sponsor?
The two directors who have quit?
The captain of the women’s team?
Or the 30 volunteers at the trust who’ve resigned?
Are they not part of the club too?
Why are they so readily disposed in the name of promotion?
David Goodwillie had to pay the woman he raped £100,000 following a civil case she had to start because the Crown wouldn’t pursue him.
His fee from Clyde to Raith is undisclosed.
The cost of this episode to the club’s reputation and standing is immense and growing exponentially, while the losses to its integrity and role in the community are immeasurable.
This transfer window has allowed us to peer into the soul of club in turmoil, where those leaders who remain in place know the price of every player and the value of nothing.
