Soccer star stripped of libel award

LONDON, England -- Zimbabwean and former Liverpool soccer star Bruce Grobbelaar suffered a devastating blow when the Court of Appeal reversed a libel verdict over match fixing allegations.

Not only will the player lose his Ł85,000 ($125,000) damages award, he now faces having to pay the costs of the trial -- estimated at more than Ł1 million ($1.47 million).

The appeal judges upheld a challenge by The Sun newspaper to a jury verdict that Grobbelaar had been libelled when it accused him of making sure matches were lost in return for cash payments.

Lord Justice Simon Brown, giving his reserved judgment today, said the jury's unanimous verdict at a High Court hearing in August 1999 "represents a miscarriage of justice which this court can and must correct."

He called the jury's verdict "perverse" and said it was "an affront to justice."

The newspaper had argued at the Court of Appeal in December last year that the 42-year-old Zimbabwean accepted money for match-fixing while playing for Liverpool and Southampton and his libel award should be stripped from him.

The case was heard by Lord Justice Simon Brown, Lord Justice Thorpe and Lord Justice Jonathan Parker, who gave their ruling today.

The High Court libel action was the third time that Grobbelaar had declared his innocence of match-fixing to a jury after The Sun published a series of damning articles about him in November 1994.

The civil action followed two trials at Winchester in 1997 -- the first of which ended in deadlock -- resulting in Grobbelaar being cleared of conspiracy, along with ex-Wimbledon stars John Fashanu and Hans Segers, and businessman Richard Lim.

It was also ordered at the High Court that Grobbelaar, who said he was the victim of a "classic scam", should have his estimated Ł400,000 ($590,000) legal costs met by the newspaper, which also had to foot its own Ł500,000 ($740,000) bill.

Pleading justification and qualified privilege, The Sun had alleged that Grobbelaar took Ł40,000 to make sure Liverpool lost 3-0 at Newcastle in November 1993.

It also said he had blown his chance of Ł125,000 ($180,000) more in a January 1994 game against Manchester United, which ended in a 3-3 draw, by accidentally making a sensational save in a match he was trying to lose.

Grobbelaar, who lives with his wife and two young daughters at Tisman's Common, Rudgwick, West Sussex, had sued the newspaper and its former editor, Stuart Higgins, for substantial compensation.

"I have just got off the phone from talking to my lawyers, and they confirmed that we are petitioning the House of Lords," Grobbelaar told Sky News by telephone from South Africa.

"I find it very astounding. Of course it's a blow," he said. "I've been through two criminal trials and one libel trial and most of those jurors were in my favour."

Grobbelaar's solicitor David Hewitt confirmed he would be petitioning the House of Lords for leave to appeal.

He said: "In our view, it is quite wrong for the Court of Appeal to substitute its findings for those of jurors who had the opportunity of hearing the evidence and evaluating the witnesses."

Daniel Taylor, company solicitor for The Sun's publishers, News International, said that the historic ruling was without precedent.

"For the first time in English legal history, a jury verdict in a libel action has been set aside on appeal on the grounds that it was perverse and unreasonable and, in the words of the judgment, an affront and a miscarriage of justice."

Mr Taylor added: "He stands today condemned by three of the nation's most senior judges as a man who betrayed his team mates, his fans and the national game.

"It has been over six years since the Sun first exposed his duplicity, but today that investigation has been fully vindicated."

RELATED STORIES: