WHAT matters more to you? Is it your principles, or promotion? Girls, or goals? Women, or wins? These are the questions the board of Raith Rovers should have been asking themselves before they made the decision to sanction the signing of David Goodwillie.

They have chosen the latter answer to all of these questions, and perhaps forever sullied their connection to lifelong supporters, their town and their supposed values as a community club as a consequence.

Did the majority of the board not have any sense of the backlash the decision would provoke? Did they not recognise what this move would cost them? They can’t say they weren’t warned.

When the idea was first mooted back in December to bring Goodwillie to Stark's Park from Clyde, the vast majority of fans made it clear they would not be back to support a team that contained a man a senior judge had deemed to be a rapist. And now they are paying the price of that flagrant disregard for the feelings of those who love the club more dearly than they ever will.

The signing of Goodwillie has already cost them the backing of celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, a passionate Rovers fan for over 60 years. Her principled stand also cost them next season’s shirt sponsorship, with McDermid pulling her financial support too.

"The thought of the rapist David Goodwillie running out on the pitch at Starks Park in a @RaithRovers shirt with my name on it makes me feel physically sick,” McDermid wrote on social media.

It has cost them their former chairman, Bill Clark, who has resigned from the board alongside fellow director Andrew Mill in protest, after being voted down four to two over the move.

“As the director of youth development and community development, for me to speak to young people and encourage them to be a part of this club — especially girls and women — is not credible, now,” Clark told The Courier.

“I cannot possibly continue doing that role after this decision and certainly could not support the signing of David Goodwillie.”

It has cost them the captain of their women’s team, Tyler Rattray, who has quit in disgust. It has even cost them their stadium announcer, Johnny MacDonald.

It has also cost them their Supporter’s Liaison Officer Margie Robertson, who drilled down to the heart of the issue in her own resignation statement.

“My values and that of the club are now on a divergent path,” Robertson wrote. Which very succinctly describes just what this has cost Raith Rovers more than anything else - their soul.

For without clear values, without a place at the heart of their community, what is a club like Raith Rovers in any case?

“This shatters any claim to be a family or a community club,” McDermid added in her own statement, and how can you argue against the point?

Over and above the disregard for that community and their fanbase, did they not even once stop to give a moment’s thought to the victim here? Which, for the hard of understanding, is not David Goodwillie.

Or did they give a single thought at all to the countless other survivors of sexual assault out there, who will no doubt be affected by seeing such a figure elevated through the ranks of the game once more? Never mind them. As long as Goodwillie can score the goals to get Rovers into the Premiership, right?

Another statement, from Rape Crisis Scotland, outlined such concerns, saying: “We are surprised and deeply disappointed that Raith Rovers FC are happy to send such a clear message of disregard to survivors of rape and sexual violence in signing David Goodwillie.

“Fundamentally – though it seems Raith [Rovers] FC do not agree - women’s lives are more important than men’s talent or careers. Footballers are role models – particularly for young people – and it’s not okay to have someone in this position who has been found by a senior judge to be a rapist.”

There will be apologists out there. Among the hundreds of messages of disgust below the announcement from Rovers on social media, you can see the odd dissenting voice. These are mostly young men. What kind of message does this send out to them about sexual violence, and of how it is tolerated? What abhorrent views does this signing reinforce?

Because let’s be clear. While criminal charges were not ultimately brought against Goodwillie and then Dundee United teammate David Robertson for raping Denise Clair on that fateful night, there can surely be no place at a football club for those who behaved as they did.

Ms Clair recounted that she had woken up naked at a house in Armadale, West Lothian, following a night out in Bathgate. The players admitted having sex with her, but claimed it was consensual, despite Ms Clair claiming she was so intoxicated she was unable to give consent.

The Crown Office decided not to pursue prosecutions, citing a lack of evidence. Despite this, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority determined Ms Clair had been raped and awarded her £11,000.

She told of her devastation at the decision by the Crown, and then First Minister Jack McConnell instructed the Lord Advocate to personally explain why a case had not been brought despite witnesses backing up Ms Clair’s version of events.

From there, she took her fight for justice to a civil action, where guilt is judged on the balance of probabilities.

Lord Armstrong heard testimony from 20 witnesses, those who backed up Ms Clair’s claims of being ‘extremely drunk’ when she entered a taxi with Goodwillie and Robertson, as well as medical and forensic witnesses who stated she had an almost fatal level of alcohol in her system.

Bouncers on the door of the club they attended said they thought Ms Clair was either on drugs, or had been given them, such was her condition.

“She was like jelly,” one said. “Her eyes were rolling about in her head and she wasn’t coherent.”

The National Sex Crimes Unit failed though to take a blood test in time to check if Ms Clair had indeed been given a date rape drug.

Lord Armstrong said of Goodwillie: “My general impression was that, particularly in relation to his assessment of the pursuer’s condition, his evidence was given with a view to his own interests rather than in accordance with the oath which he had taken.

“I did not find his evidence to be persuasive.”

Of Ms Clair, he said she was: “cogent, persuasive and compelling.”

In summing up, he declared: “Both defenders took advantage of the pursuer when she was vulnerable through an excessive intake of alcohol and, because her cognitive functioning and decision making processes were so impaired, was incapable of giving meaningful consent; and that they each raped her.”

There it is, in black and white.

But what about redemption, of the rehabilitation of offenders, you may ask? Normally, that first involves a shred of remorse, of which we have yet to hear anything of the sort from Goodwillie. He has denied the allegations, and continues to deny any wrongdoing despite losing the civil case and a subsequent appeal.

What of the victim? What of the young girls who play for the club? What of the women and girls who support the club? What message are you sending to them?

Raith Rovers have told them they do not matter. It will be to their cost, and it is to their eternal shame.