CHELSEA FOOTBALL club owner Roman Abramovich said on Wednesday he had accepted an apology and rewrites after suing the author and publisher of a book about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
Abramovich sued publisher HarperCollins and investigative journalist Catherine Belton in the High Court over passages about the Russian billionaire’s acquisition of the English club and business dealings in Russia in her bestselling book “Putin’s People”.
Chelsea released a statement from Abramovich’s spokesperson saying: “We are pleased that HarperCollins and the author have apologised to Mr Abramovich and agreed to amend the book, removing several false claims about him.”
A High Court judge in November had ruled that claims in the book were defamatory against Abramovich, opening up the possibility of a full libel trial, which The Guardian reported could have cost some £10 million.
A group of oligarchs and Russian oil giant Rosneft had launched libel action, but two other oligarchs agreed to small changes, while a High Court judge ruled that only one passage concerning Rosneft was defamatory.
The libel action prompted rights groups including Reporters Without Borders to criticise the use of lawsuits to silence critical reporting.
Belton, a former Financial Times journalist in Moscow who now works for Reuters, said in a statement she was “glad” to have reached a settlement.
She said she had been “bombarded from all sides by lawsuits” in what felt like a “war of attrition”.
Chelsea said the case had been misreported and it was mounting “a well-founded legal claim” that was not seeking to be punitive. It said it had asked HarperCollins to make a charitable donation in lieu of damages.
HarperCollins said it “has now amended the book to record the position more accurately, and include additional comments from Mr Abramovich’s spokesperson”.
It stressed, however, that none of the claims have resulted in damages and praised Belton’s “knowledge, tenacity and bravery”.
Chelsea said the rewritten passages amounted to 1,700 words including “false statements” about Abramovich’s purchase of Chelsea Football Club.
The book included claims by former Putin associate Sergei Pugachev that it was on Putin’s instigation in a bid to increase Russia’s influence.
Harper Collins said it had now made clear “there is no evidence, beyond the statements of the individuals themselves, supporting claims made to the author by Sergei Pugachev and two other unnamed individuals about the purchase of Chelsea Football Club”.
Watch Royal Rumble 2003. Around the 8 minute mark Edge and Rey Mysterio give him a double dropkick but Edge goes right across his face and breaks his nose!
The worst one pat. Remember m n m? When the guy got the ladder right in the face. Complete botch. His nose spread across his face
Joey hasn’t been the same since and is effectively retired (training in nxt now). One of the worst injuries I’ve witnessed.
Oh God. Yeh, that one is foul!
I love watching NFL, but the number of former players committing suicide because of the CTE-related dementia is scary and really needs to be addressed.
It’s not just just the older guys suffering symptoms either, linebacker Jovan Belcher who was only 26 and still playing for the KC Chiefs last year, murdered the mother of his child and committed suicide.
How long before they wake up and change the rules?
Where is it claimed that this had to do with cte? The reasoning behind that particular tragedy says he had a row with his gf over whether their daughter was his or not.
I think it’s really admirable what chris is doing but other tragedies shouldn’t be cited to push an agenda…
Belcher was a 3 time All America wrestler as well as a crunching linebacker whose job it is to crash head first repeatedly into 250lb+ blockers and running backs… head trauma much?
It is also well documented by close colleagues and friends that he displayed all the early stage signs of cte, e.g. depression, memory loss, confusion, aggressive behaviour etc…
…but hey if you think shooting his girlfriend 9 times and then himself was a perfectly sane, rational response to a row over the daughter then fair enough.
Like I said I love watching nfl, but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that repeatedly leading with their helmets, as they are taught to do from a young age, causes major problems later in life.
Was the same story with the Chris Benoit murder suicide. Everyone put it down to roid rage or personal issues with his wife but Nowinski worked with Benoits father closely and when they did an autopsy on the brain of Chris Benoit they discovered that due to the number of concussions Chris Benoit suffered he had a brain the equivalent to an elderly person suffering dementia. It was then argued how many dementia sufferers kill their family but I would argue back how many are physically capable of doing so.
After this was high lighted WWE took steps to prevent this. Unprotected chair shots to the head are banned, certain moved such as piledrivers and top rope head butts (incidentally one of Benoits finishers) are banned. On the other hand American Football associations have stuck their head in the sand.
Billy Korgan.
Karl Pilkingtons twin. :)
I agree that the NFL has to do more to
protect players – the constant impact to the brain in the sport is definitely related to depression later in a players life, as seen with linebacker Junior Seau. I also think that the NFL isn’t strict enough in regards to PEDs – so many players nowadays are on HGH and other banned substances – the combination of both brain trauma and dangerous substances does even more damage to the body. No wonder ex players are suing.
Interesting piece, but the link on Twitter was called “We’re putting our kids at too much risk by letting them play certain contact sports. Here’s how we can change that:”
This doesn’t really come close to addressing that…