The Sunday Times apologises – Abramovich to receive damages

A Murdoch Group newspaper has issued yet another apology to Chelsea FC – this time to Roman Abramovich with regards to claims that he was trying to sell the club. Further, damages will be awarded once the high court judge has made an assessment.

The club have today issued this statement on the official web-site: 

The following statement has been released by Chelsea Football Club on behalf of Roman Abramovich and the club with regard to an apology published today by The Sunday Times. The statement says: 

The Sunday Times has today (Sunday, June 14) unreservedly apologised on page 2 of their newspaper to Roman Abramovich and Chelsea FC regarding allegations that they published on January 18, 2009. 

The Sunday Times had claimed on Page 1 of that days' edition of the newspaper that despite Roman Abramovich and Chelsea's clear public denials to the contrary, and despite having been told of the denials several times before publication, that in fact Mr Abramovich was trying to sell his interest in Chelsea. 

Legal proceedings for defamation were immediately commenced against the publishers of The Sunday Times as a result of the publication of the story.

The Sunday Times now accepts that its allegations were untrue. We wish to make it clear that neither the wording nor the positioning of the apology were agreed with either Roman Abramovich or Chelsea before publication today. The Sunday Times have been told that their actions have only aggravated the position. 

An application will now be made in the High Court for a Judge to assess the amount of damages and legal costs to be paid by The Sunday Times to both Roman Abramovich and Chelsea for publishing the defamatory comments and for their subsequent actions.

 

I’ve lost count of the amount of apologies that the media have made to the club over the last few years – John Terry has received an apology, Shevchenko at least two and Roman Abramovich a couple of times at least.   

I doubt that this will be the last apology that will be made to the club or its players, staff or owner – as long as any damages incurred are much less than sales made then the press will continue to take liberties. 

The media witch-hunt on Chelsea has always been in evidence since Abramovich took over the club – the object being to please the baying, ignorant masses and oppo fans which make up the majority of their customer base and who have generally been approaching a state of self-combustion since 2004. 

The “establishment” or “old guard” of clubs will always receive preference.  Should Man City, or even in the future QPR back their financial power with more than reasonable management and threaten to be successful, then and only then might the media turn a greater proportion of their bile towards them and away from Chelsea.