Legal view: Do football managers and staff have case over leaking of WhatsApps?
Coventry City’s head of recruitment Dean Austin is reported to be exploring legal action after images of private WhatsApp messages exchanged with manager Mark Robins and an agent while he was scouting at a recent match were published online.
The messages are said to have discussed Coventry City’s upcoming opponents Watford and the future of their then manager, Valerien Ismael.
Reports suggest that the “over the shoulder” images were taken by an individual sat a few rows behind Austin while he watched Watford play against Swansea City in the Championship last week.
We reasonably believe that our private exchanges with another individual will remain private and not be placed into the public domain, which can be distressing and embarrassing for all involved.
Taking a photograph of someone’s private messages or emails and posting on to a public platform may, then, result in legal action.
There are potentially several claims that a victim could look to bring, including that the posts are an infringement of a reasonable expectation of privacy in private messages exchanged with another individual.
There is no single law of privacy as such in the UK but it has become well established through case law that individuals have a right to privacy. This right encompasses the actual misuse of private information such as its publication on a public platform, and preventing intrusion into an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
Austin and Robins – who is also reportedly considering legal action – could argue that they had a reasonable expectation that their private exchange would remain out of the public domain and there is no public interest in those messages being posted.
That is a strong argument. What might be interesting to the public is not the same as it being in the public interest for that information to be published.
Sharing or posting such conversations online may also engage considerations under the UK GDPR framework as to whether this is the processing of personal data.
Where the online social media messages form a series of posts, the victim may complain that this is harassment if the posts cause distress and upset.
Depending on the content, there may be other complaints such as the infringement of copyright. We saw something similar last year when Meghan Markle successfully brought a claim against Associated Newspapers for the publication via The Mail on Sunday of extracts of a private letter she wrote to her father.
While it remains to be seen how this will progress, Austin’s case is an unfortunate warning to check over your shoulder even when in the stands.
Rebecca Young is a partner and head of media and reputation management at JMW Solicitors LLP.