Ennis-Hill: I’ll cut my links with football club over rapist
OLYMPIC golden girl Jessica EnnisHill will ask Sheffield United to remove her name from one of its stands if the club re-signs rapist Ched Evans.
The champion heptathlete was honoured by her local team after her success at the 2012 Olympics.
But Britain’s most high-profile sportswoman will sever her links with the club if it hands a contract to Evans, who has been allowed to train with his former teammates.
Her withdrawal of support could be the ‘death knell’ to any attempt by the Yorkshire club to allow the striker to relaunch his playing career.
In a statement last night, the athlete, 28, said: ‘I believe being a role model to young people is a huge honour and those in positions of influence in communities should respect the role they play in young people’s lives and set a good example. If Evans was to be re-signed by the club it would completely contradict these beliefs.’
Her statement comes after United’s decision to let him train with his former teammates provoked a wave of criticism from high-profile supporters, MPs and club sponsors.
It will give momentum to rape charities, campaigners and supporters who were ‘appalled and disgusted’ by the move and called for football fans to boycott the stadium.
They say Evans, who still protests his innocence, cannot be rehabilitated until he admits the offence he committed.
A petition with 160,000 names has already been raised calling for the club bosses not to re-sign the player.
Club patron, TV presenter Charlie Web- ster, 32, quit on Tuesday, saying she could no longer support a club that associated itself with a convicted rapist. She was followed by 1960s singer Dave Berry, who stood down because he ‘needed to take a moral stand’.
A source said it would be ‘inconceivable’ for the club to let Evans play after the comments by Miss Ennis-Hill, a lifelong fan of the club.
The source added: ‘Her decision to stand up and be counted over the Ched Evans controversy could be the death knell for any comeback for the footballer.’
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, said footballers were not ‘just any old employee, they’re also role models’.
Evans was released from prison after serving two-and-a-half years of a five-year sentence for raping a teenager at a hotel in 2011.