Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis can pursue a libel case against a rival football club owner, a judge has decided.
Marinakis, who also owns Olympiacos, is taking on Irini Karipidis, who runs Aris. He’s not happy about some pretty serious claims she made, like saying he was involved in match-fixing and even a drug trafficking case. He’s totally denying all of it.
His lawyers argued that the £2.1 million claim should be heard in England, saying the allegations are part of a “smear campaign.” On the flip side, Karipidis’s team thinks this whole thing should be handled elsewhere and that it doesn’t really hold water.
The judge, Richard Spearman, said the claims are serious enough that they deserve a proper look in court. He mentioned that if Marinakis wins, he could get a good chunk of damages for the harm to his reputation.
The drama kicked off with some allegations made online and even on mobile billboards around Nottingham. They were all about claims that Marinakis was a “leader of a criminal organization” and involved in all sorts of shady stuff.
Karipidis’s side argued that the social media buzz didn’t really reach many people and that there’s no real proof Marinakis’s reputation took a hit. They also pointed out that this all started after a match where Marinakis allegedly tried to fix the game between Olympiacos and Aris.
Things got heated during that match, with threats flying around. Now, it looks like there will be more court dates ahead to sort this all out. It’s definitely a wild situation to keep an eye on!
