The founder of the Ana Bella Foundation, a Spanish domestic abuse charity, Ana Bella Estevez, has condemned La Liga side Getafe CF for signing embattled Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood over women’s violence concerns.
According to Mirror Football, the feminist has called on the football club to rescind its decision to sign Greenwood, citing it as an affront to the fight against violence against women.
“The club is setting a terrible example. Getafe executives should never have hired Mason Greenwood and should immediately overturn their decision.”
“If you’re a public facing organisation like Getafe there is no excuse to take a neutral stance on violence against women – you must take moral responsibility.” He said.
This follows a mixed reaction of animosity and joy that has been generated after Getafe announced the signing of Mason Greenwood on a season-long loan.
The manager of the side, Jose Bordalas, has, however, been resolute in steering the focus on football rather than highlighting issues that have been covered by the relevant authorities.
“It is a very delicate situation to trivialize this issue. Everyone knows what happened and the appropriate measures were taken, obviously, we can only talk about football.”
“Regarding the other issues, I believe that the people and the relevant authorities did what they had to do and everyone knows how it ended with a non-conviction sentence therefore he is a free person, a footballer of a very high level and who arrives at Getafe with enormous enthusiasm and that we are obviously going to help him so that he recovers back to his best level” he said.
Mason Greenwood was charged with attempted rape, assault, and controlling and coercive behavior in October 2023 after he was arrested in January and later released on bail.
He was duly suspended by the Premier League after he was slapped with the charges and consequently lost his place at Manchester United after they conducted a six-month investigation into the allegations.
Charges against the forward were dropped in February 2023 by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after it discontinued the case following the “withdrawal of key witnesses and new material thatafter came to light”. coupled with a lack of a realistic prospect of conviction” .
Ana Bella Estevez is a leading feminist in Spain and the founder of the Ana Bella Foundation, which spearheads the women’s survivor movement in Spain and offers a range of support for women.