Billionaire Chelsea football club owner is suing the Daily Mirror over a story published in March this year claiming that manager Carlo Ancelotti had three weeks left to save his job.
The Guardian reports today on a writ filed at the High Court which suggests that the story was defamatory because it suggests the Chelsea owner had put Ancelotti under “intolerable pressure”.
Abramovich has a history of taking legal action against the press.
In October 2006 he failed in a bid to injunct the News of the World to stop it publishing a story about his “close friendship with a stunning brunette”.
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In 2008 he sued the Daily Mirror over a story which claimed he had acted in an underhand way by authorising a secret approach behind then Chelsea manager Avram Grant’s back to sound out Turkey coach Fatih Terim.
In 2009 the Yorkshire Evening Post s apologised and paid “substantial” damages to Abramovich after falsely reporting that a court had been told that he threatened to kill Ken Bates.
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