The 65-year-old brought the action over three articles written in club programmes. Mr Levi claimed they contained "grave and offensive" libels which "seriously injured" his reputation.

Mr Bates, 78, denied libel, but Judge Sir Charles Gray ruled he had failed in his defences of justification and fair comment.

Mr Bates was refused permission to appeal and ordered to make an interim payment of £400,000 in legal costs, pending final calculation of lawyers' bills.

He could face an estimated £1.5 million in legal costs. After the nine-day case, Mr Levi welcomed the verdict.

He told the Jewish Telegraph: "Justice has been done. For four years me, my wife Carole and son Oliver have been under terrible pressure due to the allegations made.

"Two things particularly I was really annoyed about - my address being put in Mr Bates' match programme notes and Mr Bates also writing that my father, Jack Levi, would be spinning in his grave if he saw the antics of his son.

"My father was one of the most respected lawyers in Leeds."