Franck Ribery loses lawsuit against journalist who called him “scum”

No one likes being called names, but most people don’t have the money to invest into suing people who hurt their feelings this way. Franck Ribery, however, does have the money and so he decided to sue French journalist Daniel Riolo for the things written about him in Riolo’s 2013 book Racaille Football Club (Scum Football Club).

From the Guardian:

In his book, Riolo accused Ribéry of being one of the main perpetrators of the discontent within the [France 2010 World Cup] squad and used several derogatory words to describe him, including “scarface”, “scum” and “gangster”. The Bayern forward, who is currently out injured, sued the journalist and his publisher Hugo & Cie for damages but a judge ruled this week that the terms had been used “objectively” and that the lawsuit was “reckless”.

Ribéry was subsequently ordered to pay a total of €5,000 to Riolo and his publisher, with the judge citing Roselyne Bachelot, the French sports minister, who during the 2010 World Cup referred to some of the French team as “gangsters”.

Though this lawsuit was definitely frivolous and a complete waste of the court’s time, Ribery has still done a service to professional footballers everywhere with it. Seeing the result of this lawsuit could save a lot of other oversensitive footballers some money.

But if these comments upset Ribery this much, he should probably never, ever go on the internet.

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