That's what I was trying to say....you've done it much more clearly.Surely there’s a distinction there. If he’s acquitted at trial then it means that guilt can’t be proved beyond the standards required in court. If the charges are dropped it could mean anything from there simply being no case after the evidence is properly reviewed or there not being enough evidence beyond circumstance to take it to trial. Or the victim chooses not to go through with it for any number of reasons.
Either way it’s incredibly murky. There are multiple reasons why a case like this may not result in a conviction and sadly they are often incredibly painful cases to be a ‘participant’ in both as a victim and the accused. What a club would do in such circumstances is difficult to say, regardless of the result of the case. I remember Ched Evans being found innocent on review but it was clear that though he was eventually not found to have committed the crime, the facts showed in the case proved him to have deeply troubling attitudes towards women. Regardless of guilt I would struggle to support my club employing such a man.
The concept of innocent until proven guilty really only applies to a state punishing criminals. Civil law works on the balance of probabilities. There are several cases of people successfully suing for damages for sexual assault when the criminal case ended in a not guilty verdict.