Manchester United defender Harry Maguire was given a 15-month suspended sentence by Greece’s Supreme Court on Wednesday over a nightclub scuffle involving police officers on the Greek island of Mykonos in August 2020, court officials said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs called on Maguire’s club and the English FA to sanction the player.
The Press Association reported that Maguire intends to challenge the sentence.
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The decision to appeal to a higher court will have the effect of quashing this new judgement, as was the case when Maguire appealed against the first sentence in 2020.
The England international originally was handed a 21-month suspended sentence shortly after the incident, but he appealed the ruling, which triggered a new trial at a court on the island of Syros, the region’s administrative capital.
The appeals trial had been delayed several times, including once because of a lawyers’ strike.
Maguire, who turns 33 on Thursday, was convicted on charges of causing minor bodily harm, insulting police officers, attempted bribery, and unlawful violence against police officers.
The sentence was suspended for three years.
PA reported that Maguire and his legal representatives had rejected multiple efforts to settle the case out of court with a financial offer — including one made during the recess in Wednesday’s hearing — because he is committed to proving his innocence.
Maguire did not attend the hearing in Greece and was named in the starting lineup for Man United’s Premier League match against Newcastle on Wednesday evening.
There were no travel restrictions placed on Maguire, PA reported, which means as things stand he would be eligible to be part of England’s World Cup squad this summer.
The centre-back, who was not present at the trial Wednesday, has denied wrongdoing. In 2020, he said: “If anything, myself, family, and friends are the victims.”
But a lawyer representing police officers involved in the 2020 incident accused Maguire of displaying arrogance and a lack of remorse.
“He has never apologised — not even once. Not a single apology,” lawyer Ioannis Paradissis told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “As of today, he has a criminal record.
“We hope that his club and the Football Association of England take action against him,” he added. “How is it possible for someone who now has a criminal record and has been convicted of acts of violence against police officers to continue to participate in national teams and in the England team? It’s unacceptable.”
Paradissis also issued a statement on behalf of the police officers, who had hoped for an apology as “an elementary gesture of respect.”
“It is incompatible with the values of sport, and with the role-model status that elite athletes are expected to embody, for a person with a criminal record for violence to continue to appear as a Premier League player and as a public figure looked up to by young fans across the world,” it added.
Maguire is yet to comment following Wednesday’s sentencing, but told the BBC in August 2020 he was “scared for his life” and was concerned he, along with his family and friends, were being kidnapped.
“We got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air, they just started hitting us,” Maguire told BBC Sport.
“They were hitting my leg saying my career’s over: ‘No more football. You won’t play again.’
“And at this point I thought there is no chance these are police or I don’t know who they are, so I tried to run away, I was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life. All the way through it.”
PA and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
