Moonpig has removed a card featuring Cristiano Ronaldo from sale and apologised ahead of Valentine’s Day.
The product featured a picture of the Manchester United and Portugal star with a message that read ‘nothing will stop me from scoring this Valentine’s Day’.
Whilst we can’t be clear whether Ronaldo endorsed the card himself, it seems fairly safe to say that he did not.
Advert
Ronaldo was accused of sexually assaulting a woman called Kathryn Mayorga in a hotel room in Las Vegas 13 years ago, although he strenuously denies these allegations.
Now, the online card and gift company have removed the card from their website after social media users kicked off over it, which was described by one as ‘incredibly ignorant’.
One user on Reddit wrote: “Incredibly ignorant from them, what were they thinking?”
Advert
Another said: “The horror," while a third user simply said: “Horrible.”
Apologising for the card, a Moonpig spokesperson told The Mirror: "It's never our intention to upset anyone, we take pride in delighting our customers and go to great lengths to provide an exceptional range and service to them.
"When concerns were raised about this card, we removed it immediately from our site."
Ronaldo has never faced criminal charges for the alleged incident in Las Vegas, and a judge recommended that the civil case against him be thrown out in October last year.
Advert
The claims against him were settled out of court 11 years ago, and Mayorga was given a $375,000 (£276,650) payment from the Manchester United striker, also agreeing to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
However, she began proceedings to have that settlement overturned in 2018 after arguing that she signed it under duress.
Claiming to have been inspired by the #MeToo movement, Mayorga waived her own anonymity to give an interview to German news website Der Spiegel, who managed to get their hands on case information via Football Leaks.
Advert
The 37-year-old American model asked for £56 million from the 37-year-old striker, although a final ruling on whether her damages and costs case can go ahead has yet to be announced.
Las Vegas police reopened the investigation into the former Real Madrid and Juventus player in 2019, but later confirmed that he would not be facing criminal charges.
Ronaldo is also fighting to prevent a newspaper from gaining access to documents held by the Las Vegas police.
He claims that the information was obtained via a breach of lawyer-client privilege.
Advert
Mayorga’s team have agreed that information obtained via an alleged computer hack should not be made public until a court has decided whether that would be an infringement of Ronaldo’s rights, but claim that 400 other documents should be released.
A final hearing will be held at a later debate, although this has twice been delayed by coronavirus.
Words by Tom Wood.
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo
SPORTbible Author