FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey, who missed his team’s first World Cup match because he was denied a Canadian visa while awaiting trial on rape charges in Britain, returned to the lineup on Tuesday to an apparent snub in the pregame handshake line and a cool reception from fans.
Partey was booed by the heavily pro-England crowd at Gillette Stadium when he touched the ball in the match that ended in a 0-0 draw. Videos also circulated
on social media in which England defender Djed Spence appeared to refuse to shake hands with Partey before the match.
When England coach Thomas Tuchel was asked after the game about the encounter, the team's media officer, Andrew Walker, interrupted and said, “I’m sorry, but for legal reasons we’re not going to be discussing that today. So let’s move on.”
In the videos, Spence shook hands with the player in front of Partey and the player after him, but appeared to put his hand in his pocket when the embattled midfielder passed.
Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz denied that there was any snub.
“Look, this did not happen," Queiroz said. "We refuse to be part of people that try to bring dust and politics inside the game. We fight to keep the four lines sacred. It’s difficult sometimes, but it happens.”
Partey, who played five seasons for Arsenal in the Premier League and spent last season at Spanish club Villarreal, has been accused by four different women of sexual assault and rape.
A lawyer for Partey said in March that the 33-year-old Ghanaian intends to plead not guilty to two new charges of rape in Britain after a woman alleged Partey twice raped her on the same day in December 2020. Partey had separately been awaiting trial on five counts of rape related to two other women and one count of sexual assault involving another woman, and the new allegations arose after the first set of charges were publicized.
The charges led Canada to deny Partey a visa for Ghana’s opening match in Toronto on Wednesday, a 1-0 victory over Panama. Ghana’s final group match is also in the U.S., on Sunday against Croatia in Philadelphia.
“When we saw him starting the game, we are all happy,” Ghana midfielder Kwasi Sibo said. “We are all with him to let him stay focused and help the team, because he’s our main man and we’ll always be with him.”
Partey, who did not speak to reporters on Tuesday, said after the team’s training session on Monday: “Things happen outside football that you cannot control. So for me now, I feel OK and I’m ready to play.”
And his team was glad to have him back.
“He is a great person,” Sibo said. “He has experience playing in the top leagues, so every time training with him or training camps, we learn a lot from him.”
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
