'A disturbing insight into Man Utd' - Red Devils & Sir Jim Ratcliffe urged to donate entire €30 Mason Greenwood transfer fee to charity

Challen slammed Manchester United's new minority stakeholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS group for selling Greenwood to Marseille instead of just releasing the winger. Earlier this week, the player completed his permanent transfer away from Old Trafford in a deal worth €30 million (£25m/$34m).

Speaking to i, the activist said: "Man Utd’s a massive global sports club that rakes in hundreds of millions a year and that they didn’t release a player – which they could have done quite easily – and chose to retain him for their own financial needs, really prioritises the financial needs of the company above women.

"It seems to be a phase of the vision of what’s happening at Man Utd anyway. It’s a disturbing insight into the culture at Man Utd and how they are treating women, pushing them quite literally to the side and the periphery of the club. He [Sir Jim Ratcliffe] cares about success on the pitch for the men’s team but the women won a major trophy [the FA Cup] and he wasn’t even there."

He added: "It just doesn’t seem like the club cares, even on a basic level, about women and girls. They didn’t even engage with women’s charities until the 11th hour, the fact they can’t donate to one of those charities or maybe a charity in the local area, it’s woeful, especially for a club of Man Utd’s size. Services nationally are crippled and need funding, even in the local area. It’s staggering but unfortunately, it’s not surprising, because they had the chance to release him but they didn’t.

"This was a real moment where the best thing to do is recognise there is a problem with sexual violence in football, it’s going to keep going and there are going to be more instances where abuse happens at clubs. Insisting the UK Government should introduce an independent body to investigate similar cases in sport. They’re not responsible bodies to investigate that, which is why I’ve always advocated for an independent body to regulate and review that and take it off the hands of internal investigations as opposed to marking their own work. More often than not, they hire external independent barristers who then deliver their thoughts back to them, [and they] make their judgment and deliver that judgment to the public who have no oversight or transparency as to the process that has occurred."

Right after the player completed his move to Marseille, the club introduced him to the media in a press conference in which he was asked about the charges of assault, attempted rape and coercive control that were brought against him but later dropped. The club immediately cut off one journalist asking about it as the 22-year-old sat still.

The former England international could make his debut in the Ligue 1 on August 18 as Marseille kick off their new season against Brest.