Rooney wins court case 16/07/2010 |
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Wayne Rooney has defeated attempts to sue him for £4.3m.
The Manchester United and England striker was accused of withholding commission on multi-million pound deals brokered by sports management firm Proactive, which used to represent him.
Rooney made no payments after football agent Paul Stretford, a director and founder of Proactive, left the firm in October 2008, taking with him its star client.
Rooney was signed by Stretford for Proactive in 2002 as a teenager and quickly became a household name with a string of huge sponsorship deals with brands such as Nike and Coca-Cola.
Proactive had argued that, as such contracts for Rooney and his wife Coleen were brokered by Stretford while he was still at the company, it was still due the 20 per cent commission – amounting to £4.3m.
But Judge Brendan Hegarty QC said on Thursday (July 15) that the original contract Rooney signed with Proactive amounted to a "restraint of trade" as it was up to eight years long when the Football Association recommended a maximum of two years.
Judge Hegarty ruled that Proactive was only entitled to a "restitutional remedy" from the Rooneys amounting to about £90,000.
He rejected an application to appeal from the firm's lawyers.
In a statement released after the ruling, Rooney said: "I am delighted to have won this case.
“Coleen and I have always been happy to pay all commissions due to the people who were owed them. But these sums were a joke and we felt they were just an attempt to exploit us.
"Fortunately the judge has knocked back their massively over-inflated claims and we are happy to pay the very small sum awarded.
"Going to court was the last thing I wanted to do. I was shocked that a company which represents some of Britain's biggest entertainers was going down this road which meant that private financial and commercial matters were made public.
"But you always have to fight for what's right in life and that's why we contested it."
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