Grobbelaar to fight libel ruling

Disgraced goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar was today given the go-ahead to take his fight to clear his name to the House of Lords.

A spokeswoman for the House of Lords confirmed the 43-year-old had been granted the right to appeal against a decision earlier this year by the Court of Appeal which ruled he was guilty of accepting corrupt payments.

That judgment dramatically overturned a jury's verdict that the former Liverpool goalkeeper had been libelled by The Sun when it claimed he had taken "bungs" to fix matches.

Grobbelaar was stripped of the £85,000 damages awarded to him by the jury at the High Court libel case in August 1999.

It was the third time he had declared his innocence of match fixing to a jury after The Sun published a series of damning articles about him in November 1994.

The paper claimed he had accepted £40,000 to make sure Liverpool lost 3-0 to Newcastle in 1993. It also alleged the Zimbabwean had blown his chance of earning a further £125,000 more in a January 1994 game against Manchester United after he accidentally made a sensational save.

Grobbelaar was cleared of conspiracy in 1997 following two trials at Winchester - the first of which ended in deadlock.He then launched the libel proceedings, telling the jury he was the victim of a "classic scam".

His solicitor David Hewitt said: "Bruce is naturally extremely pleased that he has been granted leave to appeal and we look forward to a full hearing before the House in due course."