Greek football club owner sues for £5 million libel damages

The Greek owner of Nottingham Forest FC has issued a libel claim in the High Court in London, against four defendants. Evangelos Marinakis denies that he has been involved with various very serious crimes, including murder, money laundering, and drug dealing. 

Two of the defendants filed an application with the High Court, alleging that Mr Marinakis had not provided sufficient that "serious harm" had been caused to his reputation by these allegations, asking the Court to strike out the case against them. One of the arguments raised by these defendants was that the publications on social media had received very little engagement.  

The Judge disagreed with the points raised about the number of views the social media publications had received. He also commented that because the allegations against Mr Marinakis were very serious indeed, even if they had only been read or seen by a few people, that would probably still be enough for the claimant to prove that serious harm had been caused to his reputation. 

The first defendant also tried to argue that the claim had not been brought for genuine reasons, and that the claimant had been trying to punish him, rather than seek genuine redress. The first defendant suggested that the costs would outweigh damages to such an extent that the proceedings should never had been started. One of the reasons the first defendant made this argument was because Mr Marinakis' costs of the first preliminary hearing were around £350k. 

It remains to be seen whether the application will succeed or not. There are clear arguments on both sides. The allegations made against Mr Marinakis are incredibly serious, and if the defendants cannot prove the truth of what they have said, or if they cannot convince a judge that they made the allegations because they were their honest opinion, they are likely to lose. 

On the other hand, Mr Marinakis' legal costs are excessive. It seems very unlikely that a judge would allow him to recover costs of that magnitude from the defendants, even if he manages to defeat their application. In addition, suing for damages of £5 million in a libel case in the English Courts, will not succeed. If the claimant wins, his damages are likely to be a fraction of that sum.

If you want to sue someone for libel and you are looking for legal advice, contact us and speak to one of our experts today for free.