Rooney avoids big payout in court battle over fees

Published Jul. 15, 2010 4:30 p.m. ET

foxsports

Wayne Rooney will have to pay 90,000 pounds ($137,000) to his agent's former management company but not the 4.3 million pounds ($6.6 million) it was demanding from the England striker, a judge ruled Thursday.

Rooney was accused in court of withholding commission on multimillion-pound deals brokered by management firm Proactive, which used to represent him.

The Manchester United player made no payments after agent Paul Stretford left Proactive acrimoniously in 2008, taking the firm's star client and wife Coleen with him.

In a ruling delayed until after the World Cup, Judge Brendan Hegarty said at Manchester Mercantile Court that Proactive was entitled only to a ''restitutional remedy'' from the couple, amounting to approximately 90,000 pounds.

''Coleen and I have always been happy to pay all commissions due to the people who were owed them,'' Rooney said in a statement. ''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.''

Details of the 24-year-old Rooney's earnings had been disclosed during the case.

''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,'' said Rooney, who is on a post-World Cup holiday. ''But you always have to fight for what's right in life and that's why we contested it.''