Sponsors reaction to the Cristiano Ronaldo's rape allegations

In the last hours the situation concerning the rape allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo has been complicated: no, no new details have emerged regarding the crime for which the Portuguese star has been accused dating back to nine years ago, but what has changed is the attitude of its main sponsors, who, waiting for greater clarity, have started to distance themselves from the Juventus player. And then Old Lady's media own goal, absolutely puzzling and unpredictable. But let's take a step back to understand how things are currently.

The fact

What CR7 has been accused of is a case of alleged rape in 2009, when Ronaldo was still a Manchester United player about to move to Real Madrid. The Portuguese spent the night of June 12 in the Palms suite of Las Vegas with Kathryn Mayorga, the woman who recently told the story to the German newspaper Der Spiegel making the case come back. The American girl had already obtained a large sum of money from the Portuguese entourage ($375,000), an agreement that forbade public speaking of what happened. But now things have changed, even following the new lawyers who are dealing with the case of the woman and who have reported Ronaldo in a court in Nevada, which established in 20 days the period of time to receive the reply of the CR7's lawyers.

Juventus FC

The discussion also indirectly powered after the tweet send by the Juventus accounts, which was absolutely in defense of its player, bought last summer for an enormous amount. A tweet that was immediately and bitterly criticized and that seemed not only superficial and lacking from the communicative point of view. And he did not leave perplexity only in Italy, but above all outside: Sports Illustrated described the ultra-institutional attitude of the bianconeri as 'utter stupidity', Gary Lineker limited himself to using the adjective 'orrible' referring to the tweet. Is a message written with excessive lightness or a exasperated concern to defend your player in any way? The position taken by Juventus is in fact exactly in line with that of the player, who has repeatedly stated that he is totally unrelated to the story (there was a relationship, but consenting) and above all a victim of this story, born only for get visibility behind him.

The sponsors

What is around Cristiano Ronaldo is a real industry and it was inevitable that its most profitable sponsors would say theirs opinions. First came the comment from Nike, a loyal partner of the Portuguese since 2003 and with whom he has a life contract, which with a brief statement said: 'We are deeply concerned about the disturbing accusations and will continue to monitor from near the situation'. After the reaction of the Swoosh has arrived that of EA Sports (for the second consecutive year Cristiano Ronaldo is on the cover of FIFA), which has temporarily removed the face of Portuguese from previews and sent a short text to the Associated Press: 'We have taken note of the report on the charges against Cristiano Ronaldo. We are closely monitoring the situation, as we expect the ambassadors of our brand to behave consistently with EA's values'. Finally, a brief opinion by Save the Children has arrived: 'We are demoralized by what has been so far and we are working to gather new information'. In short, no one at the moment seems to want to excuse the Portuguese and soon could come statements with cascade effect, since many other prestigious sponsors (Herbalife, Tag Heuer and American Tourister to name a few) have not yet pronounced.

Portugal

However, should not delude you the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo is not among the Fernando Santos' squad, who at the moment has not issued any statement against his captain, who actually had long planned to take a break from the Seleçao but only for physical reasons. Already out for the game against Italy, he will also miss the next matches against Poland and Scotland for his choice, thus preferring to concentrate on Juventus.