Soccer: Paper identifies player in privacy row

The Sunday Herald is the first mainstream publication to identify the player. Photo / Thinkstock

A Scottish newspaper has identified a soccer player who is alleged to have had an affair with a model - publishing his image on its front page with a black bar across his eyes which read "censored".

The player is linked to a privacy injunction, dubbed a super-injunction, to stop media reporting on the alleged affair with Welsh model Imogen Thomas.

Beneath the front page the image read: "Everyone knows this is the footballer accused of using the courts to keep allegations of a sexual affair secret".

The player obtained an order preventing The Sun newspaper from revealing his name last month. At the weekend he launched proceedings against social media site Twitter after his name was revealed through tens of thousands of tweets.

The Sunday Herald claimed in an editorial that the injunction "holds no legal force" in Scotland.

It said: "We should point out immediately that we are not accusing the footballer concerned of any misdeed. Whether the allegations against him are true or not has no relevance to this debate. The issue is one of freedom of information and of a growing argument in favour of more restrictive privacy laws."

The married player is taking legal action to force Twitter to give the details of users who broke the gagging order.

"An application has been made to obtain limited information concerning the unlawful use of Twitter by a small number of individuals who may have breached a court order," his law firm, Schillings, said in a statement.

The player is not identified in the court documents.

A spokesman for US-based Twitter said: "We're not able to comment."

- Herald Online staff/AFP