Football’s #MeToo has gone unnoticed – the police investigation against Mason Greenwood could change that

The world of elite football is unwelcoming to women. Intimidated as spectators, derided as WAGs, dismissed as commentators, ignored as competitors. 

Despite that, women have fought for space in the beautiful game, as fans or players. Football is a common language, we say, that transcends gender or nation. 

But the ongoing misogyny is a bitter pill. The well-documented links between male football fans and domestic violence are a travesty. And with the allegations of rape and assault against Mason Greenwood, the 20-year-old Manchester United forward, they can no longer be ignored. Pundits wonder: is this football’s #MeToo moment? 

On Sunday, a woman posted photos on Instagram of her bruised body and injured face, showing her bleeding from the mouth. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, included the caption: ‘To everyone who wants to know what Mason Greenwood does to me.’ 

She also uploaded an audio file, which feature a woman’s voice saying to a man (who she appears to call Mason): ‘I don’t want to have sex.’ A male voice replies: ‘I asked you politely and you wouldn’t do it, so what else do you want me to do?’

The voice then says: ‘Push me again one more time and watch what happens to you.’

Later, Greenwood was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault, and has been suspended by the club ‘until further notice’.

At first I felt nothing more than the weary numbness familiar to any woman who follows the news cycle. The endless round of allegations, denials, ‘cancellations’, (sometimes) charges and (rarely) convictions of men in the public eye. 

These are the tips of only a few icebergs in an ocean of violence, sleaze, infidelity, sexual impropriety and arrogant impunity that male football embodies

‘Not another one,’ we