Is there not a way to report things like this, can't you just say Fred is claiming this and then quote something. That's not saying you think it's true is it, or does posting / reporting it in any form leave you open to problems?
Look at it from another perspective though, and if not true it's not handy for claims to be repeated is it, furthers the thought there's no smoke without fire and all that and, on a human level, if you've done nowt wrong, you don't want to read claims that you have!
In the real world, it's not worth the bad press to go after repetitions like this really, you'd think. After all, if I claim Simon Gilbert teabags Kevin Maton daily before they have a lunchtime jog around the Swanswell, it's a daft claim from a daft pseudonym. But... if he doesn't do that, it's not helpful if you and everyone else repeats it, so a claim becomes FACT.
The sad thing in all this, regardless of who's right, is the club's affairs have had an impact, on whatever level, on ordinary peoples' lives and jobs and that, to me, is a crying shame.