The trial of Nottingham Forest FC owner Evangelos Marinakis’s High Court libel claim against a Greek football rival is to be held in 2027.
Mr Marinakis, who also owns Greek side Olympiacos, is suing Eirini Karypidou, the chair of one of Olympiacos’ Greek Super League rivals Aris, for defamation and unlawful means conspiracy over several “false” allegations.
He is also suing Israeli political consultant Ari Harow and his company, Sheyaan Consulting Limited, whom Mr Marinakis’s lawyers claim were involved in the “creation and implementation” of the “smear” campaign, which saw the “defamatory allegations” published on social media and online.
On Wednesday, Mr Justice Johnson ruled on several preliminary matters in the case, including the “natural and ordinary meaning” of the allegations at the heart of the claim and whether they were statements of fact or opinion.
In a 20-page judgment, the judge said Mr Marinakis is seeking between £1 million and £5 million in damages and claims the “untrue” allegations against him “have caused him serious reputational harm”.
He continued that the publications had a defamatory meaning, but that his ruling “does not decide who will succeed in the claim, far less whether the claimant is guilty of the conduct alleged in the publications that form the basis of the claim”.
In a court order in April, Mrs Justice Steyn said that a 10-day trial of the claim had been scheduled to begin on March 8 2027.
Mr Justice Johnson said in his ruling that Mr Marinakis is suing over allegations made about him on a website, social media, and mobile billboards between November 2023 and March 2024.
They included three articles published on a website called “nottinghamforestfire.co.uk” in November 2023.
Several posts were also published on X in December 2023, and six YouTube videos uploaded.
The allegations were also displayed on mobile billboards driven around Nottingham Forest’s stadium, the City Ground, on two match days.
The YouTube channel, X account and website were all later taken down.
In written submissions for a hearing in 2024, David Sherborne, for Mr Marinakis, said the “highly defamatory” allegations were “completely untrue”.
It has been widely reported in Greece that Mr Marinakis has been exonerated of the allegations being sued over.
A further hearing in the libel claim could take place later this year.
