Cristiano Ronaldo News: Striker loses trial against Der Spiegel over tax charges

What's the story?

Der Spiegel, the German weekly news magazine, has won a case against Portugal and Juventus Superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, regarding the publishing of articles regarding tax fraud.

In case you didn't know..

The German weekly conducted a thorough investigation regarding the Portuguese player's tax payments and invested over 60 journalists to get to the root of the matter. They also used the information received from Football Leaks to draw a conclusion and published the report at the start of 2017.

Enraged, the player moved to court, and the Hamburg Regional Court circulated a temporary prohibition to restrict the magazine from publishing the articles. The news weekly was also asked to remove all articles with immediate effect. They were also threatened with a fine of up to €250,000.

Der Spiegel not only obliged and immediately removed the content from their webpage, but also appealed against the court order, in the same year.

The heart of the matter

2 years since their appeal, the German news magazine has finally won the legal battle against Senn Ferrero, who represented Ronaldo. During the appeals, Der Spiegel stated that they were not given the opportunity to defend themselves before the injunction was declared.

They even went on to point out that Senn Ferrero did not deny the facts reported, but only questioned the way the data for the reports were collected.

The news magazine went on to prove that the information was not obtained in an illegal manner or by violating any rules. It was also highlighted that the report was published keeping in mind the interest of the general public. Since they had not defied any laws, the injunction, they claimed, was not justified.

This week, finally, the judge issued a judgment in favour of Der Spiegel, and this ended their two-year ordeal. As of now, the German news outlet is free to publish their old article again for the general public.

What's next?

Ronaldo is currently sidelined with an injury and is a doubt for this weekend’s Serie A game against AC Milan. However, this news will be a big blow to the superstar whose image has already taken a hit this year.