Women’s team cut ties with Raith Rovers over David Goodwillie signing

Club’s former shirt sponsor will fund new kit for women’s team after anger at signing of player sued for rape

Raith Rovers’ women’s team are cutting ties with the club as the backlash against the signing of David Goodwillie intensified.

The announcement that the Kirkcaldy football club was signing the former Clyde striker – who was found by a civil court in 2017 to have raped a woman – prompted anger and disgust from supporters and a string of resignations of senior Raith officials.

Related: Raith Rovers women’s captain resigns amid fury over David Goodwillie signing

After withdrawing her shirt sponsorship of the club, the bestselling crime novelist Val McDermid confirmed on Wednesday that she would fund new shirts for the women’s side, which will be printed without the Raith Rovers crest, as the team arrange to play their next fixture this Sunday away from Stark’s Park, at another ground in the town.

A further statement released by the Rovers management on Tuesday evening, which insisted the signing was “a football-related decision”, further inflamed tensions.

On Wednesday, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: “What it effectively seemed to be saying was it didn’t matter how a man treated a woman, the only thing that mattered to them was whether he could score goals for the football club.”

She added: “Football players are role models and football clubs have a responsibility to make sure they are positive role models for the wee boys and the wee girls who look up to them. This is a player who was found in a civil court, albeit on the balance of probabilities, to have raped a woman and as far as I’m aware has not shown any remorse or reflection for that. Raith Rovers really do have to reflect on the message that sends.”

Goodwillie and his former Dundee United teammate David Robertson were sued for damages for rape by Denise Clair, who waived her right to anonymity, in a landmark case in 2017.

The pair had not been prosecuted, but the civil court ruled they had raped Clair after meeting her on a night out in West Lothian in 2011. She was awarded £100,000 in damages. They denied the allegation and appealed against the judgment, but lost.

Goodwillie, now 32, was fined £250 for punching a man in a Stirling nightclub in 2008, and four years later pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in Glasgow city centre.

The former prime minister Gordon Brown, who along with McDermid is one of second-tier Rovers’ most prominent supporters, said he “could not support the signing” and hecondemned rape and violence against women.

Another Raith supporter, Martin Glass, has set up a fundraising page for Rape Crisis Scotland, which has raised nearly £9,000.