Guardian
The disgraced footballer Bruce Grobbelaar faces a possible bill of £1m in legal costs after his libel victory against the Sun over match-fixing allegations was reinstated by the law lords yesterday, but with damages slashed to £1.
In a Pyrrhic win for the former goalkeeper, who has spent the past eight years trying to clear his name, the law lords ruled by a 4-1 majority that the court of appeal should not have overturned the libel jury's verdict in his favour.
But the judges branded him "corrupt" and his reputation "worthless", and reduced his £85,000 libel award down to a derisory £1.
Costs have still to be dealt with but the Sun's lawyer, Daniel Taylor, said the paper was confident that the law lords would decide either that Grobbelaar should pay the paper's costs or that each side should bear its own, because his reputation had not been vindicated.