Court grilling for Wayne and Coleen Rooney in £4m battle with agent over earnings

By Jonathan Petre

Wayne's World: Rooney and Coleen promoting Coke


Furious Wayne and Coleen Rooney are facing a court grilling this week over their multi-million-pound earnings.

Details of their lavish lifestyle will be dissected as part of a bitter legal battle with their former sports management agency, which is suing them for £4million in allegedly unpaid commission.

Rooney’s friends are said to be outraged that the lawsuit has been brought, as it could distract the Manchester United and England footballer in the run-up to the World Cup in South Africa in the summer.

The case, due to begin at Manchester Mercantile Court tomorrow, has been bought by the Formation Group and Proactive Sports Management, which is now owned by the James Grant Group that represents Simon Cowell, Ant and Dec, Davina McCall and Holly Willoughby.

Legal papers filed in a Leeds court in December 2008 revealed details of the Rooneys’ then £35million fortune and included claims for unpaid bills for their wedding in June that year.

Among them were a £18,934 bill for Rooney’s stag week in Ibiza and a £2,622 first-class return plane ticket to fly Coleen’s assistant to pick up jewellery from New York.

Other spending by former supermarket check-out girl Coleen, 23, included a £864 bill for food and drink at her hen weekend in Miami, £565.76 on a dress fitting in Manchester and £2,525.01 on a night out to see Westlife.


Rooney's agent Paul Stretford continued to represent the couple

The Rooneys are understood to have settled these debts but Proactive claims it is still owed commission on contracts it says it negotiated on their behalf with Manchester United and companies like Nike and Coca-Cola.

The couple are said to have held back payments after the departure from Proactive of their long-term agent Paul Stretford.

Mr Stretford founded Proactive 20 years ago but left amid acrimony in 2008, taking the Rooneys with him.

Rooney, 24, has stayed loyal to Mr Stretford even though he was banned last May from working as a football agent for nine months and fined £300,000 after the Football Association found him guilty of improper conduct.

The charges related to how Mr Stretford and Proactive, which was later taken over by Formation, obtained the rights to represent Wayne when he was 15.

The Rooneys say they refuse to pay Proactive any more because it has not given them any services since Mr Stretford’s departure.

A friend of Mr Stretford said: ‘Proactive and its owners have played no part in the management of Wayne or Coleen’s business affairs since November 2008, when they last had contact with Proactive.

‘It is inconceivable that they should expect payment for the period since then to now, never mind for the years ahead.’


New mum: Coleen Rooney, pictured at a Liverpool fashion event in Liverpool last week, is paid £41,667 a month to write her OK! column



He was also earning £1million-a-year from Nike, more than £200,000-a-year from computer games firm EA and £600,000 from a four-year deal with Coca-Cola.

The value of the Premiership’s top goalscorer has soared since then and he is expected to be offered a new contract by United within months that could raise his pay to £150,000-a-week.

Observers believe he could negotiate an even higher figure if he performs well in the World Cup.

Coleen is also expected to be called into the witness box to give details of her income from endorsements of perfume and make-up, plus magazine columns and her TV series Real Women.

The court documents show she earned £13,000 for each episode of Real Women and £41,667 a month for her OK! column.


source: dailymail