As a result of pressure from its sponsor, estate agency Reeds Rains, Selby Town football club has apologised for the “severely misjudged” decision to sign a convicted domestic abuser.

After attacking his girlfriend, footballer Thompson was convicted in April 2019 of assault and grievous bodily harm. He was jailed for three years and four months and given a restraining order lasting 10 years, and was released from prison early on licence.

The club plays in the tenth tier of English football as a member of the Northern Counties East League Division One, and Thompson joined, on trial, in August.

This brought criticism from fans at the time, but the club insisted that the footballer had served his sentence and deserved the opportunity.

Selby Town was then about to sign Thompson full time when Reeds Rains said if they did so the firm would no longer support the club financially. The news made the national press.

Christian Fox, the Selby manager, posted this message on the club website last Thursday:

As manager of Selby Town FC I want to make a statement.

The recent events surrounding the club have been severely misjudged. Thinking of giving someone like that an opportunity was misplaced and we should have realised that after the first incident. To think about it twice was extremely insensitive. There is not one individual person to blame on this and we should have been aware of the depth of ill feeling the matter would attract.

We have dragged up horrible memories for individuals and families who suffer from domestic abuse. There is one victim who has suffered more than anyone in this and to her and her family we offer our unreserved apologies. We need to try and offer her some comfort and we will be writing to her privately.

I want the club to be able to move on from this but I know It is going to take time and for a lot of people, that won’t be possible.

On a personal level, I will be reaching out to the domestic abuse service companies in the area to try and build a relationship with them and support them in raising awareness of this horrible violence.

I know words will never be enough but believe me when I say how sorry we are with the upset we have caused so many. We are not trying to make excuses or cover anything up.

I hope once again Selby Town FC will be able to regain trust and rebuild its standing in the community.

Clearly the repercussions of the club’s actions continued to reverberate as the next day (Sept 25th) the vice chairman, Dave Haddock, posted this:

Chairman Ralph Pearse is taking a leave of absence from the club, and so it was important to me that my first action as the newly installed vice chairman and interim chairman was to address the events of recent weeks. The statement that I have prepared on behalf of the committee and the club is long overdue and I can only apologise that it has taken us this long to fully address the situation.

The decision making by the club in recent weeks has been poorly judged and insensitive. There is no excuse that I can give that would justify the decisions we have made, and quite rightly the club has received the backlash we deserve.

Many have asked how this decision came about. This was a decision made by a committee vote, and one that was won by a single vote. Many were against the decision, but regardless of who did or didn’t vote for this to happen, it was ultimately a club decision for which there is no excuse.

Words alone cannot make things right for both Danielle and others who have suffered through our actions, and apologies will sound hollow, but I am sorry for our poor judgement, not because of the backlash which we rightly received, but simply because our judgement was poor and morally wrong. We are opening dialogue with IDAS to discuss how we can begin to repair the damage that we have caused, although I understand that this alone isn’t enough to right the wrongs.

Much needs to be done to correct the path of Selby Town FC, and I know that for many the club will always been tainted by our actions, but I still firmly believe that the club should be one that is important to the community, and I and others will work tirelessly to turn the club around and make the necessary steps to win back the trust of our supporters.