Eni Aluko has vowed to continue her libel case against Joey Barton after he was found to have defamed the TV pundit following a High Court ruling.
Social media posts made by Barton, 42, about Aluko in January 2024 —including one where Barton alleged she was a “race card player” — were defamatory, a High Court judge has ruled.
Aluko, a 38-year-old former England international, was the subject of comments on Barton’s X account after she appeared as a pundit during ITV’s FA Cup coverage in January of last year.
Barton, a former central midfielder with clubs including Manchester City, Newcastle United and Queens Park Rangers, called Aluko a “race card player”, which she denies.
In December 2024, Justice Lavender was asked to decide the “natural and ordinary” meaning of the posts, and whether they were innuendos about being dishonest or hypocritical.
On Wednesday, the High Court judge ruled that the social media post in which Barton described Aluko as a “race card player” had a defamatory meaning. The judge also found that a second post did not have a defamatory meaning but did have a defamatory “innuendo meaning”.
Barton’s social media posts were ruled to be defamatory (PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
In a statement welcoming the ruling, Aluko said that Barton’s posts “were an unwarranted attack on my personal and professional identity, my integrity and my family life”.
“Joey Barton has rightly never indicated that he has any basis on which to defend his defamatory statements about me,” the statement added. “Should he do so, I look forward to proving my case against him in court.”
This ruling was separate to the criminal case in which Barton is due to stand trial next month accused of sending grossly offensive communications to Aluko with intent to cause distress or anxiety under the Malicious Communications Act.
Barton was charged in July 2024 of “alleged malicious communications online, between Monday 1 January and Thursday 18 January” of that year.
In his ruling, Judge Lavender stated: “This trial was not concerned with the claimant’s other claim against the defendant, nor with related criminal proceedings which have been brought against the defendant.
“Indeed, the wider dispute between the parties is irrelevant to the issues which I have to decide.”
In June 2024, Barton — who has also managed Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers since retiring from playing — apologised to British TV presenter Jeremy Vine and agreed to pay him £75,000 in damages after a high court judge ruled comments the former midfielder had made on X were defamatory.
(Top image of Eni Aluko, via George Wood/Getty Images)