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By Tony Attwood
The breaking of the news of the level of engagement with, and work by Saka, as he collected the Socrates Award for his humanitarian work, leads me to quote directly from the Mail – something I do very rarely. It tells us of the “BigShoe charity, which funds operations, feeds children and helps with disaster relief across the world. From restoring the eyesight of that 14-year-old in Rwanda to helping provide life-saving procedures for 120 children in Nigeria, Saka’s impact goes far beyond the stadiums he dazzles in.”
Now I do like to know about the work that some footballers become involved in, as a result of the stupendous salaries they earn, because it contrasts so fulsomely with the usual nonsense we normally get fed. Stories such as the tale that senior people at Aston Villa threatened the sue both commentators and a TV channel because of what they called “unacceptable insults about the club,” and its player.
Of course nothing happened, and it seems to have been a bit of pointless nonsense by the club just trying to take a moral stance and get a headline. So it really was quite pathetic, although it was an interesting moment not least because it was the first time that anyone could recall in which the owners of a club had threatened any media outlet with legal action because of what they wrote or said about a match or a club.
But Villa backed down, perhaps because they realised how silly they might look although this doesn’t mean anyone can say anything about a club, a player, a chairman etc etc.
Of course I am not a solicitor, but as I understand hings, if someone says something about you, your work or indeed a football club you are associated with, you can sue if you feel like it. But you will have to show that as a result of the comment, you have lost money or had your reputation seriously damaged in such a way that it affects your subsequent life. So although I would prefer it if you did not call me a stupid idiot, there’s not much I can do about it, since I doubt I could show in court that the comment had materially affected me in any way.
For generally speaking (and please do note this whole article is written in terms of what generally happens and what generally is expected and has not been checked by a lawyer) you have to show that as a result of the false statement you have lost money or in other ways had your life seriously affected in a negative manner.
So to take one particular example, which I stress has never happened, if someone wrote an article about me and said “this Tony Attwood goes around claiming he got a research degree at the University of London and he didn’t,” I could say that statement is untrue because I did, and I have the certificate to prove it, and there is a copy of my thesis in the library of the university. But I doubt I would be able to sue for libel because I can’t see that I could show that I had lost any money or suffered in any way because of this untruth.
So if someone says on a radio interview, “Arsenal are the dirtiest team that has ever played in the Premier League,” the commentator probably would not be able to prove that statement, but even if he could, the defense would most likely ask, “what damage has Arsenal FC suffered as a result of this lie?” And if crowds then dropped dramatically the club could try and say that was due to the allegation, but it would still be hard to prove. If there is no proof of damage, there can be no award of compensation.
Now to be clear I have not made any allegations about anyone or anything that has resulted in my being sued (although I did get fined a fiver once for driving with an insecure load on the M4). But the point is that the laws of slander and libel are there to stop people making such stories up and publicizing them. As a writer I have a duty not to harm any person or organisation by publishing untruths.
So my saying that Player X is rubbish, wouldn’t make it to court unless the manager rather bizarrely said, “Tony Attwood says X is rubbish so I dropped him.” If the player was then dropped I still might not have to pay damages if I could show that the comment was fair and that as a result of dropping the player, the club improved.
So if you accuse me of making up a lot of tripe in writing this blog, you’ would have to show that as a result of your allegations the number of people reading my daily chitchat had greatly declined.
Now there is a point in all this, because in a free society, commentators musts have the freedom to say and write what they think. It might be annoying indeed when the Telegraph might accuse Arsenal of “dark arts” in playing football as in the headline Arsenal’s dark arts and ruggedness are everything they were not before Arteta. I object to that allegation, but it would surely be impossible to prove that Arsenal lost money because of that article.
For the fact is that “For the good of football, pundits must be allowed to speak their minds” as the Telegraph itself says, and the Villa owner indeed withdrew his threat. And it was, in my view, a very silly threat to make.
Newspapers can say pretty much what they want about football clubs – but the main thing to remember (it seems to me) is that most comments are just there to fill space, and few have much to do with reality.
