RAITH Rovers owner John Sim admits his first instinct was to 'close the club' over the backlash surrounding the signing of David Goodwillie.
The Stark’s Park outfit controversially recruited the former Scotland striker - deemed a rapist by a civil court judge in 2017 - from Clyde in January on a two-and-a-half-year deal.
But sponsor and lifelong fan Val McDermid walked away from the club in protest, directors Bill Clark and Andrew Mill stepped down, the ladies team severed ties with Raith and even First Minister Nicola Sturgeon condemned the signing.
Raith eventually backtracked days later and said Goodwillie would not play for the Kirkcaldy team.
Sim, speaking to The Courier, said: “I’m appalled by the reaction to it and, initially, my reaction was, ‘well, if he can’t play for the club, let’s close the club’, I didn’t think it was fair.
“The guy has been playing at Clyde for years. He’s been coaching, been their captain and won player of the month awards.
“Surely you need to move on and let the guy pick up the pieces.
“How much do you punish someone? Since I’ve been knee-high to a grasshopper, I’ve believed in forgiving but not necessarily forgetting.
“I feel for David, and I feel for his wife and daughter.”
Goodwillie faced a similar backlash at Clyde after rejoining the Bully Wee on loan from Raith at the start of March and the League One side they would terminate his contract.
Asked about what the future holds for the 33-year-old, Sim added: “I think we need to think about what he wants.
“As I understand it, because of the strain this has put on his wife and daughter, he doesn’t want to play in Scotland.
“But he wants to play football — so he will play somewhere. "At the moment, Clyde are paying part of his wages.
“Firstly, legal obligations are legal obligations. Secondly, we’ve got two estimates in for immediate repairs to the North and South Stands coming in at £600,000.
“Paying one player isn’t a big deal in the big scheme of things.”
Asked about the well-being of Goodwillie’s victim, Denise Clair, Sim added: “I am sorry she went through what she went through.
“I have sympathy for her. Both of them have paid dearly. If I could help her, I would, just as I’d try to help him.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here