The Office of the Crown Prosecutor in the UK is currently reviewing evidence against Icelandic footballer Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson and deciding whether it will pursue prosecution against the former Everton midfielder or drop the matter entirely, RÚV reports. Gylfi Þór has been accused of “multiple sexual offenses” and has been subject to a travel ban that has prevented him from leaving the UK since being arrested at his home in Manchester in July 2021.
Responding to an inquiry from RÚV, Nazia Dewji, a spokesperson for the Office of the Crown Prosecutor, said that there was no set deadline by which a decision on the matter must be made. Dewji said that the evidence from the police investigation had been received by the prosecutor at the end of January.
Gylfi Þór was released on bail shortly after his arrest, but has not played in a professional football match since then. He was taken off the active roster for the Premier League team Everton and his contract was not renewed when it ran out last summer. He has not played with the Icelandic Men’s National Team since then either.
In October 2022, Gylfi Þór’s father Sigurður Aðalsteinsson, gave an interview in which he called on the Icelandic government to come to his son’s assistance. The case had been dragged on for far longer than legally reasonable, he argued. “If someone is detained in some [other] country for some hypothetical offense, you can’t just let him languish there for a year, year and a half just endlessly waiting,” he said. At the time, the footballer’s family hoped to change Gylfi Þór’s legal domicile to Iceland so as to make it harder for the British judiciary to extend his travel ban. It was the first time that anyone close to Gylfi Þór had confirmed that any such travel ban existed.
