Oldham are the latest club to feel the effects of being associated with convicted rapist Ched Evans, after one of the League One outfit's main sponsors threatened to pull the plug on its deal if the striker signs on at Boundary Park.
Evans had been due to train with Oldham on Monday amid rumours he would be unveiled as the Lancashire side's latest signing. However, the move was on hold after thousands of people put their names to a petition and the club's directors held a conference call to discuss the issue.
"More than 20,000 people have signed an online petition urging the club not to sign him and now Verlin Rainwater Solutions, which sponsors the main stand at Boundary Park, has threatened to end its association with the club if it employs Evans," reports The Times.
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Evans was released from prison in October after serving two-and-a-half years of a five-year sentence for rape. Since his release he has maintained his innocence and still hopes to appeal against his conviction.
His former club Sheffield United distanced themselves from him after there was uproar at the news it was thinking of offering him a contract.
"The saga of Evans' return to football has continued since his release sparking an angry debate over his future," notes the Times.
Despite the protests, the Professional Footballers Association has said that now he has served his sentence Evans has a right to work. Another of Oldham's sponsors, technology company Web Applications, has said it will support the board and condemned the "mob justice", reports Sky Sports.
In a statement the company said it would be "unethical" to try and influence the football club's decision.
Others however remain convinced there is no room in the sport for Evans until he accepts his crime.
"In what truly civilised society does any unrepentant man progress from such low-life debauchery and a five-year sentence for rape, to a place back in public life as a League One player?" asks Rowan Pelling of the Daily Telegraph.
Until he shows "even a modicum of regret, or an iota of understanding" he should "be barred from our football pitches", she writes.
And as Evans continues to campaign against his conviction his supporters do him no favours, says David Conn in The Guardian. "He might reflect that a website, set up and funded by his supporters to maintain his innocence, does not achieve a greatly improved perception of him. It offers a £10,000 reward for information leading to his conviction being overturned, apparently inviting the victim’s friends to come forward with information about her."
Taking that into account, says Conn, it is still "not the right time yet for Ched Evans to be featuring in team pictures of beloved clubs which will decorate the bedrooms of children".
