Swiss court dismisses Albanian football defamation claim
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has dismissed a defamation case linked to a disgraced Albanian football club.
In 2018, European football’s governing body, UEFA, banned KS Skenderbeu from competing in top European tournaments for 10 years after finding the club was involved in match fixing for a large-scale betting scam. An appeal was rejected by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
A report from UEFA on the club painted a picture of rampant fraud and criminal activity. A former coach and a sponsor of the football club jointly sued officials at the Swiss-based UEFA, complaining that their names had been linked to the corruption.
They won an initial case in canton Vaud but the verdict was quashed on appeal last year. On Friday, the Supreme Court released details of its final verdict on the case, which sided against the two complainants.
Judges ruled that the report did not name the complainants as criminals but rather that they had links to the betting ring and corrupt officials.
The court was also satisfied that the report was published in good faith and did not intend to harm the complainants.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.