Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand is taking legal action over a tabloid kiss and tell story. The 32-year-old centre-back is suing MGN Ltd in the privacy action. The case relates to an April 2010 article, featured on the Sunday Mirror website for five days before being taken down. Father of three Ferdinand, who has two sons and a daughter with wife Rebecca, claims the publication of a an alleged 13-year relationship with another woman was a misuse of private information. MGN Ltd claims its story was in the public interest. Both the player and the woman are likely to five evidence in the three-day hearing at the High Court. Mr Justice Nicol will decide whether the newspaper had justification for publishing the story because the over-riding public interest meant that the publication's Article 10 rights to freedom of expression outweigh Ferdinand's Article 8 privacy rights. Hugh Tomlinson QC will act for Ferdinand, while Gavin Millar QC is representing the newspaper.
While the players and staff may gossip, it will not distract them from focusing on retaining the League.
Yet another example of the media confusing public interest with gossip. How exactly is a story like this in the public interest?
If the idiots keep buying the papers, the journalists will continue to turn respectable footballers into media slags.
I'd guess it's because he didn't want to do it during the season to avoid the distraction, and didn't want to do it last summer cos of the WC. Guess he tried to have it done in early June but the overloaded court system bumped it to July. Also, any sort of action like this is usually preceded by a bit of negotiation in which the two parties try to reach some sort of settlement before going to court. Maybe they've been trying to reach a settlement since last year (it can take that long in some cases) and have run out of patience.
