Marco Verratti has withdrawn his lawsuit against L’Équipe after an apology from the newspaper.
The French sports paper claimed the Italian international and teammate Blaise Matuidi had been at nightclub for a Puma event before the Barcelona game.
Verratti then launched a lawsuit to defend his name, insisting that neither man had ever been at the event.
Marco Verratti has withdrawn his lawsuit against L’Équipe after an apology from the newspaper.
The French sports paper claimed the Italian international and teammate Blaise Matuidi had been at nightclub for a Puma event before the Barcelona game.
Verratti then launched a lawsuit to defend his name, insisting that neither man had ever been at the event.
“L’Équipe apologises for false information recently published,” a statement reads.
“On March 9, we announced that the PSG players Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi had been out at ‘a night club’ two days before the return match with Barcelona in the Champions League.
“The following day, this information was included in the newspaper and on the L’Équipe website.
“Today we’re certain that this information was false, and was relayed to us by malicious external sources. We apologise.
“We also apologise to Messrs Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi for the harm caused to them and to their employer, Paris Saint-Germain.
“This dysfunction will cause us to re-examine our internal procedures in order to keep bringing you quality information.”
Verratti then published the statement on his Instagram page with the caption “apology accepted, no hard feelings”.