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Daily Record admit no truth in O'Neill story

The Scottish Daily Record newspaper has today admitted there was no truth whatsoever in a story they published stating that Martin O'Neill was to become the new manager of Liverpool Football Club.

The article, which they ran on 7 February 2003, claimed Celtic boss O'Neill would be leaving his position at Parkhead and taking over from Gerard Houllier at the start of the 2003/04 season.

Liverpool Football Club strenuously denied this claim, citing the report to be totally untrue, and, in admitting they were wrong to run the story, the newspaper has been forced to pay out substantial damages and costs.

A statement read out at the High Court in Liverpool today read:

"The claim arises from an article published in the Daily Record on 7 February 2003 under the headline "I have the proof O'Neill is on his way to Liverpool says Talk Sport's Mike Parry." The article claimed that Martin O'Neill would leave his position as manager of Celtic and become Liverpool's manager at the start of the 2003/2004 football season. It reported that Mike Parry, host of Talk Sport, had stunned his audience by stating that he had it on good authority that O'Neill had signed up to become Gerard Houllier's successor at Anfield - despite having signed a 12 month rollover contract with Celtic.

"Readers of the Daily Record were likely to understand from the article that the Claimants had surreptitiously negotiated, agreed and signed a legally binding contract with Martin O'Neill to make him manager of Liverpool FC for the 2003/2004 season, behind the back of Gerard Houllier, the current manager, and despite their public statements of support for him, and had thereby behaved in an underhand and hypocritical manner.

"The Defendant now accepts that, contrary to the article, there was no truth in this allegation.

"The Claimants purpose in bringing these proceedings was to ensure that erroneous reporting was corrected and their reputation restored. While the Claimants would have preferred that the article had never been published, they accept that they have achieved all that they can by bringing these proceedings and feel suitably vindicated by reason of the payment of damages and their costs and the publication of an apology in The Daily Record.


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So if the Daily Record now has to pay damages etc. what about that wanker Mike Parry?