Juventus women's team were forbidden from speaking anything about the rape allegations levelled on Cristiano Ronaldo, former player Petronella Ekroth has now revealed.
The 29-year-old Ekroth, recently returned to Sweden after spending one season with the Serie A champions and has expressed that she felt her opinions were curbed and that they "didn't count".
"We weren't allowed to talk about (the Ronaldo case)," Ekroth told Swedish outlet Expressen. "The only thing was to keep a low profile and work for the club's values. In this way you become very closed and I felt that my own opinions didn't count."
Ekroth said she felt trapped at the club because for her, it is important to speak about something she feels is wrong.
"I felt a bit trapped in there, I thought a lot, 'What can I do? What can't I do? Who am I?'"
"I think they had a bit of difficulty with wanting to have opinions and I think maybe that was why I had it a bit tougher than others. For me, it is important to tell if I think something is wrong and I stand for it," Ekroth further said.
Ekroth has now rejoined her previous club Djurgardens and will also work as a TV pundit.
Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo is facing allegations over raping a US woman in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. While the footballer vehemently denies the accusations, reports in June stated that he has been served with legal papers on the case.
Juventus was inititally criticised for putting a couple of status supporting Ronaldo when the rape allegations emerged. They had called him a "great champion" with "great professionalism and dedication" and that "the events allegedly dating back to almost 10 years ago do not change this opinion".
However, post the above-mentioned statement on October 4, 2018, Juventus have kept shut about the entire case.
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