Courts, Florentino and Diario As
Lawsuit thrown out of court
Yesterday we received some good news: the High Court of Madrid annulled a decision of the 16th Court of Madrid, for which AS, Gay de Liébana and I were convicted at the request of Florentino and construction firm ACS. The lawsuit was for insulting their honour, based on an interview with Gay de Liébana in which he implied that behind the transfers of James and Keylor Navas there could have been links to the interests of ACS, to obtain contracts in the players’ countries of origin. It also included an article of mine, accusing me of fuelling the same fire, something that is hard to deduce from a clear reading of it. Florentino now has twenty days to appeal to the Supreme Court. I don’t know if he will.
The rumours were already out there
That decision ordered us to give 6,000 euros to Florentino (he had asked for 100,000) and to publish the verdict in the centre pages, both in this newspaper as well as in El País, El Mundo and La Razón, although I'm not sure why those papers' obligations were put on me. The argument was that this newspaper had launched the malicious attack 'urbi et orbi', to the city and the world. At the trial, though, we argued (and provided copious amounts of supporting evidence) that these rumours had been pulled together by many other media sources before us, all at several dates prior to our publication, and even including one club member who asked the question at Real Madrid’s Assembly. That rumour was 'vox pópuli' at the time.
Festive greetings and a toast to all
This paper never stoked the flames on this. Yes I have written that Florentino signs players for vanity reasons, which is something very different. The interview was published in two installments and neither were headlined for this angle. Nor did my article anything of the sorts. In short, Merry Christmas to you all and also to Florentino, who will be able to make do without the 6,000 euros. In the end, he is among the 'rescued' by the Administration for the Madrid highways disaster. And some of that I put in. I understand that every Spaniard paid 50 euros for the bailout. In my home there are four of us, so on behalf of the Relaños we gave 200 euros. And with this I would like to dedicate a toast to you and yours tonight, wishing you happiness.