Sports Agent and Sports Lawyer Blog

Following up on our recent blog post about sports libel lawsuits, we have news of a libel lawsuit filed by sprinter Donovan Bailey against a Swedish newspaper.

As a disclaimer, I have to tell you that I have no particular knowledge of Swedish libel law. The article does not go into detail regarding the standard that must be shown to win a libel case, which is critical to understand in a libel lawsuit. In other words, we do not know whether Bailey has to prove “actual malice” by the newspaper in order to bring his claim. We do know that Bailey’s primary goal is to salvage his reputation and image:

"Financial damages is last on our list. First... would preferably be the source of what we think is a mischievous rumour that was given; the second is to repair the image damage that has been done to Mr Bailey. I mean, it was more psychological than anything else done to him," Seegobin said.

"It prevented him from further competing for the rest of the year (because), he was so distraught over this whole situation," he posited.