Footballer Jamie Vardy and his wife Rebekah have secured a correction from the Daily Mail after taking a complaint to press regulator IPSO.
The pair complained over an article published in October 2024 headlined: “Rebekah Vardy, another showbiz leak and the question: Will she EVER stop meddling in the affairs of other footballers’ wives?”
The article speculated that Rebekah’s failed libel case against fellow footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney “must put a dent in the Vardy family finances, especially, as I can reveal, a US soccer team into which Jamie made a significant investment went bust last year, citing an ‘unsustainable business model’”.
The Vardys disputed that Jamie had made a “significant investment” in the club, the Rochester Rhinos in New York state, saying he had no financial involvement and had become a minority stakeholder to help the club attract new players.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) found the Daily Mail had taken sufficient care of the accuracy of its statement, citing a press release that stated Vardy had “bought a minority stake in the club”, the fact he took part in interviews alongside investors who said they were “going to be investing millions of dollars”, and the fact the claim had been widely reported for three years.
But IPSO deemed the inaccuracy to be significant in the light of the article’s claim that the couple were facing financial difficulties and found that it was therefore in need of correction.
Because the Daily Mail had offered to run both a standalone and a footnote correction nine days after IPSO made it aware of the complaint, the regulator said there was no breach of the requirements in the Editors’ Code of Practice for significant inaccuracies to be corrected promptly and with due prominence.
The correction put on record that Jamie “now wishes to make clear that in fact his stake was granted for free on the expectation his involvement would attract new players to the club”.
The Vardys also argued it was inaccurate to say the club had “gone bust” as it still exists but is no longer fielding a professional team. However IPSO declined to investigate this part of the complaint as it was not made on behalf of the club itself.
Read the full IPSO ruling here.
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