DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well back the Ched Evans now and he is a convicted rapist but he has served his time so should Mr Evans be allowed to return to professional football?  The former Sheffield United striker has appealed against his conviction and a review of his case will begin in weeks.  I’m joined from York by Clarke Carlisle, the former footballer and former chair of the Professional Footballers Association and straight in with it, Clarke, a very good morning to you, what do you think, should they offer it, should Ched Evans get his job back?

CLARKE CARLISLE:  Good morning, Dermot.  Well this is an incredibly emotive and delicate topic and as you’ve seen, as you’ve interviewed so many people, it’s going to polarise opinion up and down the country but the laws of this land state that once your time is served then your sentence is spent and after that stage of correction you should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society but what that doesn’t factor into in this issue is for the victim of such a heinous crime, for her family, the sentence is for life.  They are going to have to deal with this and there are going to be a lot of support and pressure groups opposing Ched getting back into employment but that is the law of this land, he’s served his time so he should be allowed to be reintegrated back into society.  

DM: Isn’t remorse, an admission of remorse, part of rehabilitation?  

CLARKE CARLISLE:  Yes, there are several provisos, aren’t there, that go with that reintegration into society and contrition is a huge element.  I think what has to be understood in this case is Ched is launching an appeal against his conviction so any remorse shown, any admission of guilt would undermine that appeal so that’s the way that he’s going about it and I would suggest that because the case is ongoing that Ched should be put to one side, so to speak, until the whole process has come to a conclusion but like you are saying there, it is going to take an incredibly strong football club, an incredibly strong manager to re-employ Ched Evans because the ethical and moral issues that we’re discussing have far reaching ramifications, they really do.

DM: Wouldn’t a statement from Sheffield United help in this process?  

CLARKE CARLISLE:  I think they have put out a statement saying they are continuing to monitor the situation and they are not going to directly enter into negotiations for re-employment but it’s kind of a grey area because it is almost still sub-judice because he has launched an appeal and there are very few things that people want to say about it because they don’t want to compromise that situation.  But clarity is definitely the order of the day but you can’t clarify the issue in its entirety because it will polarise opinion, there will be many people who feel he shouldn’t be allowed back into what is let’s face it a very privileged job, even though it does take a whole amount of hard work to get there.  It’s a very, very tough one, Dermot.  

DM: Whatever the legal niceties, the fact that he has done the crime and served the time and all that, what messages, what symbols does football want to be sending out, football as a whole, if it re-employed a convicted rapist?

CLARKE CARLISLE:  Well football and sport has always been at the forefront of paradigm shifts in public attitude and the way that we approach it and consider topics and there is an incredible opportunity here to utilise what is an incredibly emotional topic, what’s a tough topic but using it to actually address the attitudes that are held by predominantly male spectator sport and it can be used to highlight the idea of consent and what that actually means and what it constitutes in sexual relationships and a fully frontal assault on violence against women and all the shapes and forms that that comes in from domestic violence all the way across the spectrum to rape.  There is power here to use an incident in sport, a very horrible incident but to use it to bring this to the forefront of people’s minds and help address their thought processes and the way they consider these.  

DM: But I’ve got to ask you then, how in this particular case without that crucial contrition, how can that be utilised if Ched Evans were given a job back in football?  Would they be saying that football endorses his viewpoint?

CLARKE CARLISLE:  Without an admission of guilt, because as you know Ched has been found guilty by a group of his peers, without contrition and without tackling it from a position of remorse, then using Ched as a frontman on a campaign like that would totally undermine it, it would be futile and like I said earlier, Dermot, because there is an ongoing process, I don't think we would see any kind of admission of guilt until that process is through but still, that is not to negate the fact that this issue is now front and centre and it is an opportunity to tackle it.    

DM: Great to talk to you, Clarke Carlisle thank you very much indeed.