Willie McKay, the football agent, today accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over a claim that he had been involved in transfer fraud.
McKay had brought proceedings at London’s High Court over an article in the Daily Express in January last year.
His counsel, Jonathan Crystal, told Mr Justice Tugendhat that in March 2006 the Premier League launched an inquiry, led by Lord Stevens and backed by a team from Quest, into alleged irregular payments from transfer dealings.
In October 2006, Lord Stevens indicated he was not prepared to sign off 39 of the transfers involving eight clubs and, at the end of December that year, said he was still not prepared to sign off on 17 of those.
Crystal said McKay had been involved in four of the transfers and voluntarily met Quest in January 2007 to provide information for the inquiry.
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He said the article incorrectly described the meeting as an “interrogation”, wrongly stated McKay had previously been investigated by the French judiciary as part of a probe into transfer fraud and portrayed McKay as having been involved in suspect transfers and transfer fraud in France.
He added that, in June 2007, Quest confirmed they had no evidence of any irregular payments to club officials or players - although they were unwilling to sign off on the 17 transfers.
In November, they confirmed it was clear that no evidence of irregular payments was found in the transfers in the inquiry period which involved McKay and he was thanked for his co-operation.
Crystal said Express Newspapers and journalist Harry Harris now accepted that the allegations, which had damaged McKay’s reputation and caused him distress, were untrue. They apologised and agreed to pay him substantial damages and his legal costs.
The newspaper’s counsel, Catrin Evans, said they welcomed the opportunity to set the record straight.