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Dressed in what appears to be a very expensive designer track top, from the neck down the man in front of me certainly looks the part of professional footballer on a day off. Box-fresh white Nikes, baggy shorts over sports tights and gloves complete the look – along with the studded black rose mask concealing his identity.

This is Dide, an incognito rapper who started releasing music online earlier in 2023. Why the mystery? Because, he claims, he is also a current Premier League player.

Strolling across a small city pitch usually reserved for five-a-side games near London’s Waterloo Station, a far cry from the multimillion-pound stadiums he says he is used to, he says hello and shakes hands with the Sky News crew before settling down on the astroturf to give his first on-camera interview, his manager and also his own cameraman in tow.

Dide is an anonymous rapper who also claims to be a Premier League footballer

Word spreads quickly and a small crowd of young footballers grows behind us, eager to watch the man in the strange mask, potentially a British footballing hero, in action.

Dide’s appearance gives little away; he’s about 5ft 10in and slender-ish, though the top is loose, pretty much every inch of his body is covered. The voice that has clocked up millions of YouTube views and Spotify plays, now speaking in person – the accent suggests London – is not distorted or changed in any way, he assures.

There has been frenzied speculation and numerous headlines written since the release of his first track, Thrill, in April. The song has racked up more than 5m plays on Spotify and Dide has more than 200,000 monthly listeners; on YouTube, the track has 2.3m views and the artist almost 80,000 subscribers.

Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah seems to be the favourite among internet sleuths, but other names in the mix include Nketiah’s teammates Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson, Chelsea’s Noni Madueke, Fulham’s Alex Iwobi – already known for his rapping skills – and West Ham’s Michail Antonio.

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Plus, Wilfried Zaha and Sheyi Ojo, although Zaha moved from Crystal Palace to Turkey’s Galatasaray earlier this year, and Ojo is on loan in Belgium from Championship club Cardiff City – but did play for Liverpool until 2022. Everything from video locations – Bermondsey has been spotted – to possible tattoos has been poured over for a potential giveaway.

Arsenal's Eddie Nketiah controls the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
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Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah is among the names in mix

Or, could this all be a clever marketing ploy? There is no doubt the anonymity has helped create a wave of interest. His lyrics feed the hype, with references to a team that “stays winning” and players including Neymar and Harry Kane, as well as him “seeing seven figures”.

Sky News asked to verify Dide’s identity not for publication, but he politely declined. However, rather than requesting to meet at perhaps the safer option of a music studio, he did agree to a football pitch, prepared to show off his skills – more on this later.

He also doesn’t dodge questions about the stadiums he’s played at or the players he’s faced during his career. Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium has the best changing rooms, apparently; interestingly, considering they were only promoted this season, Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road the worst. “No disrespect”.

View at the Kenilworth Road Stadium with it's neighbourhood before the English Premier League soccer match between Luton Town and West Ham at Kenilworth Road Stadium in Luton, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
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Luton’s Kenilworth Road Stadium. Pic: AP/Frank Augstein

A quick look at the fixtures confirms only four Premier League teams have played Luton Town at Kenilworth Road this season: West Ham, Wolves, Burnley, Spurs. Then there’s the date of our interview, the afternoon of Sunday 22 October. If Dide plays for West Ham, he has just half an hour afterwards to kick off against Aston Villa, at Villa Park. Even Kylian Mbappe isn’t that quick.

Would he really narrow it down by this much? Could he be a more recent Premier League signing who played Luton previously in the Championship? Or could his Luton answer be a slip-up?

‘I see things from afar’

Anonymous masked rapper Dide claims to be a Premier League footballer. Pic: BLVCKROSE Ltd
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Pic: BLVCKROSE Ltd

Dide insists he’s the real deal. “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion,” he says. “Obviously we made the decision [to be anonymous] and we ran with it. It kind of organically happened. Nothing was really thought out to trick people… The main thing for me is the music rather than the football player. I guess fans and the public ran with all these different opinions, which is cool. But it was definitely not a marketing trick.”

He says his favourite player of all time is Arsenal hero Thierry Henry – a clue to his team, maybe? – and the greatest player he has come up against is recently retired former Chelsea and Real Madrid star Eden Hazard. The most annoying thing about being a Premier League footballer is “not being able to go to Tesco or something like that… you don’t really have a life outside of football, there’s always eyes on you”. It’s a fairly standard answer on the worst aspects of celebrity – but if true, suggests he could be at the more high-profile end of the fame scale.

Giving a fact most wouldn’t know about the league, he offers a fairly detailed answer about how referees explain changes and new regulations to teams at the start of each season. And his take on VAR? “Obviously it’s good because it makes it fair, but it kind of takes out the emotion.”

He speaks slowly, pausing often and considering his responses. He refers to “we”, which is Dide and his manager, Shola Akins, one of apparently very few people to know his real identity. The music is released through their label BLVCKROSE Ltd and Akins, who has previously worked as a music editor, says they have known each other for a few years.

The anonymity “protects myself, protects other football players as well”, Dide says, because his lyrics don’t just tell his own stories. “It might be about my teammate, for example.” They also take in politics, with Thrill tackling knife crime and poverty: “F*** being rich, I’d rather help the poor/ Government’s got no remorse/ And Rishi Sunak couldn’t help the cause/ So here’s Dide spitting peace tryna wipe the floor.”

“I see things from afar and I feel like, especially at the moment, there’s a lot of stuff going on, a lot of people need support,” he says. “A lot of the communities and the young people, some people don’t have places to live. The economy at the moment ain’t great, prices are rising. And I feel like Rishi Sunak and the government, obviously they’re responsible for that. I think that specific lyric was more of a cry out for help for our community.”

‘Footballers are human beings – we do have feelings’

Masked rapper Dide claims to be a current Premier League footballer. Pic: BLVCKROSE Ltd
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Pic: BLVCKROSE Ltd

Players can often face criticism on and off the pitch, he says, giving another reason for his mask. “Every game we get criticised, when we win, when we draw, whether you play bad, whether you play good. Adding something outside of football is just adding more [potential for] criticism. So it was easy for me to make that decision to try and keep the music separate. And, you know, they’re two different things. My effort and my concentration towards football is 100%.”

Dide says he has come to see making music as a form of therapy, a way to “let it all out”. Is mental health an issue in the sport? “I don’t want to seem like we don’t get support because we do,” he says. “Obviously the PFA are big on mental health and supporting the players… but definitely mental health is a big thing in football.

“A lot of people don’t really get to see what goes on behind the scenes… whether you’re playing one minute and you’re dropped, whether you’re injured for however many weeks. People don’t really see how that can affect you as a human being. That’s definitely one of the main topics I want to touch on in the music, because people need to understand that footballers are human beings as well… we do have feelings, we do have things we’re going through outside of football as well.”

Dide says he hopes to motivate younger footballers and fans, “spread a positive vibe”, as well as detail “the highs and lows”. Following the release of his first mixtape, Who Is Dide?, featuring tracks including Derby Day and Tactical Foul, in September, how does he answer the titular question? “I feel like Dide is a voice for football players, for the sport.”

Dide is an anonymous rapper who also claims to be a Premier League footballer

He has apparently been playing football, his “first love”, since he was six, says it is all he has ever considered as a career. Music, he reveals, is a passion for a lot of players behind the scenes but was never something he always planned to pursue seriously. “One day we had training, we had the day off the next day, me and my teammates thought: why not? Let’s go studio… It kind of just progressed into what it is. It wasn’t really something I planned to do, but it’s just another way of expressing myself.”

Clarifying, he says his teammates remain in the dark. “A lot of us go into the studio just for fun, but no one really knows how far it’s gone.” But some of them have their suspicions. “They ask me, like, ‘Oh, is it you?’… But just the same way that it can be me, it could be someone else. So there’s no real one thing that would make it be, you know, one football player.”

The mask features roses because his favourite colour is rose gold, he says, which certainly sounds like a credible answer for someone who could afford rose gold jewellery. Both the mask and the name Dide contain clues to who he is, he adds. “As the music comes out, it will kind of make sense… Maybe I might reveal myself in the future. Who knows?”

Some have questioned how a professional footballer could dedicate so much time to another venture. Dide admits he has just one day off a week, sometimes two, “depending on if we win or get a good result”. His free time comes in the evening “when you’re at home chilling by yourself, or with your family, whatever. That’s when I start writing music… or playing FIFA with my teammates. It’s not something I have to go out my way to do because I’m at home anyway”.

What do the experts say?

Bukayo Saka of Arsenal FC gestures during the UEFA Champions League match between Sevilla FC and Arsenal FC at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on October 24, 2023 in Sevilla, Spain. AFP7 24/10/2023 (Europa Press via AP)
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Could Dide be England and Arsenal star Bukayo Saka? Pic: Europa Press via AP

Trying to get to the bottom of it all, we spoke to a football writer, a music expert and an accent coach to get their thoughts.

British grime DJ and hip-hop expert Alex de Lacey, an assistant professor of popular music at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, says the interesting thing about Dide is the crossover between football and entertainment. David Beckham set the precedent for this back in the 1990s with his moves into fashion, and John Barnes is almost as famous now for his rap on New Order’s World In Motion, England’s 1990 World Cup song, as he is for his football. Believe it or not, Eric Cantona is currently on tour after releasing his first single, and recently there has been a political crossover, too, most notably through Marcus Rashford’s social campaigning.

“You saw it in the ’90s, some kind of engagement between Britpop and football and this kind of conflation in culture. But UK rap and drill and football is much more tied together… there was the grime clash between Bradley Wright-Phillips and Yannick Bolasie. And now what we’re seeing is musicians and footballers hanging out, socialising, and this sense of proximity is much more pronounced than it was before.”

Alex says “a lot of work” has gone into Dide’s music, with a considered approach taken and “super high production values”. The mystery surrounding the claimed Premier League player identity is “very clever”, but “the music itself backs it up,” he says. “It would be harder to succeed in this way if he wasn’t a good rapper.”

David and Victoria Beckham in 2003

He says Dide’s real identity actually doesn’t matter as much as what he represents – “a reflection of this increasing overlap between football, music, entertainment” – and the point at which people find out “means it’s no longer as interesting”. As an Arsenal fan, however, he says it would be exciting to discover the rapper is a Gunner. “They’re also very hot on their music partnerships, they had Pusha T in the third kit recently. But it’s all just conjecture – which I guess is the point of it.”

He continues: “A lot of young men and women growing up in London, in the inner city… they have a proximity to this culture in a way that means they probably did rap when they were kids. So they kind of grew up rapping, listening to the same tunes, playing football… they say the main way to succeed is through football or through rap. I think that’s something which has been cultivated over the past 20 years with young people in their everyday social life. So the likelihood of this happening more and more just seems pretty apparent.”

Voice and accent coach Ashley Howard had a listen to Dide’s tracks and speaking voice to see if he could shed any light on his identity, analysing his music and speech against the speech of some of the frontrunners. The rapper’s accent falls into the category of “multicultural London English”, he says, which is influenced by east London as well as the Caribbean, Africa and India, and now heard mainly in south London but also further afield around the capital and other parts of the UK.

Everton's Alex Iwobi is in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Everton at the Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
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Alex Iwobi moved from Everton to Fulham in September. Pic: AP Photo/Jon Super

There are occasional intonations in Dide’s rapping that would suggest Jamaican influence or heritage, which might suggest Michail Antonio or even Raheem Sterling, he says. However, this could also be down to the difference between Dide’s speaking voice and rapping voice, he adds, as there can be a difference.

But you also have to listen to the placement and rhythm of someone’s accent as well, which he says makes him rule out Antonio. Iwobi and Ojo are possibles, he says, but Saka is most similar. “I think it could be his voice… Dide’s voice is quite far forward, there’s a very light and open quality to his rapping. And I think Bukayo’s voice lends itself a bit more towards that.”

So what do football experts think? Mark White, a writer for the FourFourTwo magazine and website, is sceptical. “Given how much fans study players these days, given how nothing is secret in football, I think it would be very, very unlikely to be a Premier League footballer,” he says. “I might be wrong, but if Dide is actually a Premier League footballer, I’ve got the feeling he’s had to throw people off the scent with his lyrics a little bit.”

White has met Nketiah and doesn’t believe he is the man behind the mask. Of all the theories, like our voice coach he thinks England star Saka’s speaking voice is the closest match. “But it feels like that would be too good to be true, if one of the best players in the world at the moment was also moonlighting as a rapper. I think that would just be too exciting.”

So… can Dide take a penalty?

Masked rapper Dide claims to be a Premier League footballer

After we chat, Dide swaps his trainers for football boots and puts the ball on the spot – pointing out the difficulties in doing this while wearing his mask. The first couple of shots are saved by one of the young boys from the crowd who has happily offered to play goalie, but he soon gets into his stride.

Is he convincing? I definitely want to believe it – and there’s no reason why a professional footballer couldn’t also be a talented rapper. Based on his skills? He definitely plays football and knows what he’s doing, controlling the ball easily, but it’s hard to say whether that means Premier League, especially based on the short time we see him in action. It’s worth noting the mask once again, the small five-a-side goal, and also that he doesn’t appear to be treating his shots with the gravitas of, say, a cup final. Plus, he wouldn’t be the first English player to miss a penalty – though I don’t imagine the pressure of scoring in front of a Sky News crew is quite the same as a game watched by millions.

As for what’s next for Dide, there are apparently plans to play live shows at some point, working around his schedule. And there is nothing in his contract that would stop him from releasing music, he says, whether he ever reveals his identity or not.

Masked rapper Dide claims to be a Premier League footballer

“If anything [the music is] a positive. I’m trying to inspire other people, inspire other football players to come out and speak their truth… and just express themselves. Obviously, football is the main priority and if I was coming in late to training or whatever, then obviously that would be a problem. But I like doing music in my spare time. To me, it’s better than going out clubbing or whatever.”

On the speculation, he says the strangest theory he has come across is that Dide is Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire. “To me, that’s funny. Obviously I know Harry Maguire quite well… but I don’t really look at social media too much.”

Instead, his “main happiness” comes from the positive reaction and “what people are saying about the actual music itself”, he says. “Long may that continue.”

Are we any closer to answering the question: who is Dide? Maybe a little. But it looks like the mystery will stay alive for a while yet.

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‘You feel so violated and vulnerable’: Single mum ‘sexually assaulted’ in ambulance by paramedic

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'You feel so violated and vulnerable': Single mum 'sexually assaulted' in ambulance by paramedic

WARNING: This article contains language and content some readers may find distressing

As a single mum, Lucy* looked forward to her rare nights out. A few years ago, during after-work drinks at a local pub, she started feeling unwell. When she collapsed and passed out, a bouncer called an ambulance. Lucy’s drink had been spiked.

The ambulance was crewed by two paramedics, a man and a woman. Still unconscious, Lucy was placed on a stretcher, strapped on to the bed, and driven towards the hospital.

After a scary episode, Lucy’s friends must have breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe, and being looked after. But, as the female ambulance driver looked in her rear-view mirror to check on Lucy, she says she saw the unimaginable – her male colleague sexually assaulting his patient.

Lucy still doesn’t remember what happened, but she has the police report and crime scene pictures of the inside of the ambulance.

Pointing to a photo of where she was strapped down, she says almost matter-of-factly: “He put my legs up, so my knees were up, and put his hand inside my groin area – possibly touching my vagina.”

When she regained consciousness, she was told what had happened to her. Years later, she is still struggling to process it.

The paramedic denied the charges and was found not guilty at trial, but later struck off by the paramedics’ regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

They have a lower standard of proof than the criminal courts, and found against him, calling him a “serious threat to patient safety”.

Lucy still wouldn’t feel safe getting into an ambulance today. “It’s awful, you feel so violated and vulnerable,” she says.

Rebecca Hendin illustration for Rachael Venables piece

“It’s a shock to think someone in that position would do that, when they’re supposed to be there to look after you.”

Her story is horrific, but Lucy is not alone. It forms part of a year-long Sky News investigation into sexual misconduct in the ambulance service, which has revealed a culture where abuse and harassment among staff are rife and patients are sexualised.

A senior ambulance boss admits the service has “let victims down”, while stressing that perpetrators are the “minority”.

Jason Killens, head of the Welsh Ambulance Service and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, says he expects “a steady increase” in the number of cases, with more paramedics being sacked for sexually inappropriate behaviour over the coming years, because of the work his organisation is doing to change the culture.

Data shared with Sky News shows one in five of the sexual misconduct complaints made against paramedics to their regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council, in 2023 were for acts against patients or members of the public.

While fewer than 1% of all HCPC members had concerns raised against them last year, in sexual misconduct cases, paramedics were hugely over-represented.

They make up just 11% of the HCPC register, but account for 64% of all investigations into sexual harassment against colleagues. The regulator’s chair, Christine Elliot, thinks the sexual misconduct cases are “just the tip of the iceberg”.

Rebecca Hendin illustration for Rachael Venables piece

“This is all about patient safety,” she says. “Patients need to know when they see a practitioner, they can rely on them giving the best care possible with the best behaviour possible.”

‘Totally unnecessary breast examinations’

Cases like Lucy’s are rare but several whistleblowers across multiple trusts have spoken up about a culture in which “banter” or jokes about groping patients are commonplace.

Current and former paramedics claim to have heard patients, particularly young women, being sexualised by the men who had helped to treat or even save them.

One former paramedic revealed the phrase “totally unnecessary breast examinations” (or TUBEs), and said she had heard paramedics talking about “TUBEing” young, drunk women. She also claims to have seen a colleague grope another colleague’s breasts, telling her: “I just TUBEed you.”

A second woman said the same phenomenon was called “jazz hands” in her trust. Both said these were widely understood phrases which referred to colleagues accidentally, or deliberately, touching a woman’s breast during treatment.

A third paramedic told us she’d heard colleagues talk about patients in an explicitly sexual manner, saying things like: “She had nice tits” or “those were silicone”, while bragging about getting a patient’s number and having a “good feel”.

“That is assault. That is sexual assault,” she says.

Rebecca Hendin illustration for Rachael Venables piece

‘It will be fun. Your career will progress’

“One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn’t be believed because of where I worked. It was the ambulance service and he was the man in charge,” says Ellie*, whose first job was as a call handler in an ambulance control room.

She loved the camaraderie and the idea that she was making a difference. Until one day, the manager called her into his office and invited her to a conference with him. At first, she was flattered and a little confused.

“He explained that he’d taken a liking to me and then he reached out and touched my leg.” Shocked, Ellie froze. “I was in my early 20s and didn’t know what his intention was. I was a bit naive, probably.” As he carried on talking, her boss slid his hand “as far up my thigh as it could go”.

Horrified, she shot back in her chair and asked him what he was doing.

“If you come, we’ll share a room. It will be fun. Your career will progress,” her boss replied.

“No,” she exclaimed, rushing out the room in a panic. Back at her desk, she carried on taking 999 calls while he watched over her.

Then she claims the messages started: “They were photos of his private parts, as well as messages suggesting meeting in the car park for sex and saying he wanted to kiss me. A whole manner of very descriptive sexual actions that he said he wanted to do with me.”

The messages carried on “for months”, she says, despite her pleading with him to stop. She was left dreading going to work for fear of seeing him, and avoided going to the toilet in case she ran into him in the corridor.

Venables paramedics piece

Eventually she showed the messages to HR, she says, but claims they suggested moving her to a different office. He wouldn’t be punished.

“It was sexual harassment,” Ellie says, caught between anger and despair. “They didn’t do anything. There was no investigation. No meeting with him that I’m aware of. No statement from me. Nothing. I was the problem.”

She eventually quit the service, but alleges he still works there to this day, an injustice that “makes me feel sick” she says.

An NHS England spokesperson said new national guidance and training has been recently introduced “to stamp out this awful behaviour”.

“Any abuse or violence directed at NHS staff is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated, and the NHS is committed to tackling unwanted, inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviour in the workplace. We have recently introduced new national guidance and training that will help staff recognise, report and act on sexual misconduct at work to stamp out this awful behaviour,” they said.

‘We failed those individuals… I’m sorry’

Ellie’s story is simply “not right”, says ambulance boss Mr Killens.

“We failed those individuals,” he admits, saying “I’m sorry” to both staff and patients who have “been subject to poor behaviour from our people”.

What should the NHS do if a serious complaint of sexual abuse is made about a paramedic?

Anyone can raise a concern about a paramedic’s fitness to practise including patients, colleagues, police or members of the public.

Where the complaint is serious the NHS is expected to directly raise a concern with the regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council.

What happens when a paramedic is referred to the HCPC for a complaint of sexual abuse?

If the concern is very serious they can apply for an interim order to prevent someone from practising or to place conditions on how they can work until the case has been closed.

The claim is investigated and eventually considered by an independent tribunal panel who can impose a number of sanctions.

They can strike someone off the register or impose a temporary suspension; place a condition of practice or a caution order; or decide no further action is necessary.

How long does it take?

In 2023/24 it was around 160 weeks from receipt of a complaint to reaching the final decision

Why does it take so long?

Last year, there were a total of 2,226 concerns raised, a 26% increase from the previous year.

The HCPC say they face external pressures, like delays from NHS trusts, complex investigations, or having to run alongside the criminal justice system.

They also say “archaic” laws mean they have to take a huge amount of cases to a full tribunal, even when the preference might be to drop the case sooner and want legislative change.

Work is being done, he says, to tackle this kind of behaviour, citing it as his, and his organisation’s, top priority.

That will involve rooting out the perpetrators, but also playing the “long game” to change the culture “so that we can begin to tackle low level misconduct or inappropriate behaviour early, rather than let it fester and get worse,” he says.

According to the HCPC’s chair, cultural change is needed from leadership down. Sexual harassment, Elliot says, needs to be treated as high a priority as “waiting times and crumbling hospitals”.

Read more from this investigation:
Life as a female paramedic
‘Toxic’ culture of harassment revealed

But many of the victims we have spoken to say the HCPC takes too long (an average of three years) to investigate misconduct allegations.

Elliot agrees that isn’t good enough, but says they are running initiatives to speed things up, and wants to see legislative change to give her organisation more power to speed up investigations.

They have also created a sexual safety hub for both victims and witnesses of inappropriate behaviour.

It can be hard to hear allegations like Lucy and Ellie’s, contrasting their stories with a service in which the majority of people are dedicated to saving lives.

But it’s also clear that for far too long, abusers and those who commit sexually inappropriate behaviour have operated with impunity in the ambulance service. Some were perhaps protected by allegiances or cover-ups, many others simply hid behind the veneer of “banter”.

Ambulance and NHS bosses have made it clear to Sky News they are determined to root out not just the perpetrators of serious sexual violence, but also to stamp out the culture that breeds this behaviour.

But in the meantime women like Lucy, Ellie and countless others won’t hear an ambulance siren and feel safe, telling us they would even struggle to dial 999 in the case of a medical emergency.

*names have been changed

Illustrations by Rebecca Hendin

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK

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Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use – with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

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Apple sued by Which? over iCloud use - with potential payout for 40 million UK customers

Consumer rights group Which? is suing Apple for £3bn over the way it deploys the iCloud.

If the lawsuit succeeds, around 40 million Apple customers in the UK could be entitled to a payout.

The lawsuit claims Apple, which controls iOS operating systems, has breached UK competition law by giving its iCloud storage preferential treatment, effectively “trapping” customers with Apple devices into using it.

It also claims the company overcharged those customers by stifling competition.

The rights group alleges Apple encouraged users to sign up to iCloud for storage of photos, videos and other data while simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative providers.

Which? says Apple doesn’t allow customers to store or back-up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider, arguing this violates competition law.

The consumer rights group says once iOS users have signed up to iCloud, they then have to pay for the service once their photos, notes, messages and other data go over the free 5GB limit.

More on Apple

“By bringing this claim, Which? is showing big corporations like Apple that they cannot rip off UK consumers without facing repercussions,” said Which?’s chief executive Anabel Hoult.

“Taking this legal action means we can help consumers to get the redress that they are owed, deter similar behaviour in the future and create a better, more competitive market.”

Apple ‘rejects’ claims and will defend itself

Apple “rejects” the idea its customers are tied to using iCloud and told Sky News it would “vigorously” defend itself.

“Apple believes in providing our customers with choices,” a spokesperson said.

“Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage. In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible – whether it’s to iCloud or another service.

“We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”

It also said nearly half of its customers don’t use iCloud and its pricing is inline with other cloud storage providers.

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How much could UK Apple customers receive if lawsuit succeeds?

The lawsuit will represent all UK Apple customers that have used iCloud services since 1 October 2015 – any that don’t want to be included will need to opt out.

However, if consumers live abroad but are otherwise eligible – for example because they lived in UK and used the iCloud but then moved away – they can also opt in.

The consumer rights group estimates that individual consumers could be owed an average of £70, depending on how long they have been paying for the services during that period.

Apple is facing a similar lawsuit in the US, where the US Department of Justice is accusing the company of locking down its iPhone ecosystem to build a monopoly.

Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and that it will vigorously defend against it.

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Big tech’s battles

This is the latest in a line of challenges big tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have faced around anti-competitive practices.

Most notably, a landmark case in the US earlier this year saw a judge rule that Google holds an illegal monopoly over the internet search market.

The company is now facing a second antitrust lawsuit, and may be forced to break up parts of its business.

Read more: Google faces threat of being broken up

FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google LLC is seen at their office in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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File pic: Reuters

And in December last year, a judge declared Google’s Android app store a monopoly in a case brought by a private gaming company.

“Now that five companies control the whole of the internet economy, there’s a real need for people to fight back and to really put pressure on the government,” William Fitzgerald, from tech campaigning organisation The Worker Agency, told Sky News.

William Fitzgerald at Lisbon's Web Summit, where he spoke to Sky News
Image:
William Fitzgerald at Lisbon’s Web Summit, where he spoke to Sky News

“That’s why we have governments; to hold corporations accountable, to actually enforce laws.”

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Referees’ body taking ‘very seriously’ video that appears to show David Coote snorting white powder

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Referees' body taking 'very seriously' video that appears to show David Coote snorting white powder

A video appearing to show a Premier League referee snorting white powder is being taken “very seriously” by the referees’ body.

Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) suspended David Coote on Monday over derogatory comments he allegedly made about ex-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and the club in previous footage.

PGMOL and the Football Association are investigating Coote who, it is alleged, used an expletive to describe Klopp and called Liverpool FC “shit”.

Now it has emerged the UEFA Referees Committee also suspended Coote until further notice on Monday, ahead of the upcoming round of UEFA matches “when it became aware of his inappropriate behaviour”, it said.

On Wednesday evening, another video appeared on The Sun’s website which it said showed Coote snorting white powder during this summer’s Euros in Germany, where he was officiating.

A PGMOL spokesperson said: “We are aware of the allegations and are taking them very seriously. David Coote remains suspended pending a full investigation.

“David’s welfare continues to be of utmost importance to us and we are committed to providing him with the ongoing necessary support he needs through this period. We are not in a position to comment further at this stage.”

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The Sun said the video was filmed on 6 July, the day after the Euro 2024 quarter-final clash between Portugal and France, for which Coote was an assistant VAR.

A statement from UEFA said: “The UEFA Referees Committee immediately suspended David Coote until further notice on 11 November – in advance of the upcoming round of UEFA matches – when it became aware of his inappropriate behaviour.”

David Coote. File pic: PA
Image:
David Coote. File pic: PA

The previous video footage, appearing to show Coote making derogatory remarks about Klopp and the Anfield club, began circulating online on Monday.

He was subsequently suspended by PGMOL pending a full investigation, and the FA then said it was also investigating the matter.

Coote officiated Liverpool’s most recent Premier League game – a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday night.

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He was criticised by some fans after Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was brought down by Aston Villa player Leon Bailey.

Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez went on to score after play wasn’t stopped – but a replay showed Coote had chosen not to stop the game because he believed the challenge on Salah wasn’t a foul rather than because he wanted the Reds to keep their advantage.

The PA news agency has approached the FA for comment regarding the Sun’s story.

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