Soccer club sues paper over Ronaldo story

Real Madrid says it has taken legal action against a Portuguese newspaper that reported the Spanish club forced Cristiano Ronaldo to settle with the woman who accused him of rape. Madrid says the information published by the Correio da Manha newspaper is “categorically false” and was printed in an effort to “seriously damage the image of this club.” Madrid says it “has absolutely no knowledge of any of the information that the newspaper published with regard to the player Cristiano Ronaldo, and therefore the club was unable to take action on a matter of which it had no knowledge.” The Correio da Manha published an article Wednesday saying part of Ronaldo’s defence will be to say Real Madrid forced him to settle. It said Ronaldo was against settling and always declared his innocence. The newspaper said Thursday it stood by what it published and everything in the article was properly checked.