VfB Stuttgart said yesterday they believed Bulgarian midfielder Krasimir Balakov when he said he did not attack a journalist on a flight to Stockholm for tonight's Cup Winners' Cup final.

Press spokesman Roland Eitel said: "Nobody knows if it happened, because nobody saw it, but Stuttgart believes Balakov who has denied it."

Balakov said the pair argued but he did not hit the journalist.

Stuttgarter Zeitung journalist Thomas Heid yesterday said his colleague Holger Gayer was slapped and head-butted during the flight on Monday by Balakov, who took exception to something Gayer wrote. The newspaper was considering legal action, Heid added.

German journalists who travelled on the plane said the incident appeared to have happened by the galley, so none of them were in a position to see it.