United striker's agent starts damage-limitation exercise and prepares
to hammer out a settlement

Matt Scott and Daniel Taylor
Tuesday April 11, 2006
The Guardian


Sven-Goran Eriksson has been assured that Wayne Rooney's gambling
debts, reputed to be around £700,000, have not caused a rift with
Michael Owen, his England team-mate. The Football Association, acting
on the England manager's behalf, felt sufficiently concerned in the
wake of weekend reports to contact representatives for both players
yesterday and it has received categorical assurances that there is
nothing to worry about which will please Eriksson ahead of the World
Cup.

It had been reported over the weekend that Rooney has a grudge
against Owen for getting him involved in high-stakes gambling on
horse racing, greyhounds and football matches with a company that is
run by Stephen Smith, a business associate of the Newcastle United
striker.
Rooney's advisers at Proactive Sports Management, the company headed
by Paul Stretford, began a damage-limitation exercise yesterday,
releasing a statement to deny that Eriksson's first-choice strikers
had fallen out. "Any suggestions of a rift or a dispute between Wayne
and Michael are completely without foundation as far as Wayne is
concerned. They remain the best of pals."

Eriksson will prefer to hear that from his players but is not thought
to be overly concerned. Rooney's form has been so good in recent
weeks, earning him the Premiership's player of the month award, it is
clear that however huge his debts, they are not affecting his
performances.

Rooney does not consider himself as having a gambling problem other
than his apparent inability to pick a winner and Eriksson believes
the case to be one of just another millionaire footballer with too
much money. He will speak to the striker about the matter but does
not intend to be overly paternal, accepting that he can do what he
likes with his own money.

Last night Proactive's lawyers were in the process of trying to reach
a financial agreement with Goldchip, the company set up by Smith, a
director of Owen Promotions. Smith set up the firm so that
footballers could bet discreetly rather than use high-street
bookmakers. The 57-year-old has been a co-director of Owen's firm,
along with the striker's father, Terry, and mother, Janette, since
June, but analysis of his business history seems to indicate that he
made his first introductions with the Owen family through the
player's elder sister Karen.

She is company secretary and a director for a Bradford-based company
called Design Emporium which she set up with Smith as a co-director
in April 2003.

Smith, from Horsforth near Leeds, has a long history of working in
the textiles industry and was a director of the now-defunct British
Shoe Corporation, setting up a shoe-import business after leaving the
company in March 1995. It is obvious that he brings a great deal of
specialist experience in that element of the family's business but
having incorporated Eurosport Management in 2004, the Owens clearly
believe he has more to offer in the sports promotions sphere.

Where his role as an odds-setter comes in is more opaque. Smith
claimed at the weekend to have recently obtained a licence to operate
as a bookmaker and that he had previously acted only as an agent for
an already-licensed layer. Such licences are authorised by local
magistrates who require evidence of funding, a business plan and two
professional references. There is also a fit-and-proper person's test
that demands from applicants their proposals on how to deal with
money laundering, underage gambling and problem gambling. Whether the
licensing authority near Smith's Leeds home would consider as a
problem the running up of a £700,000 debt in the space of a few weeks
is as yet unknown.

Sir Alex Ferguson's thoughts on the matter remain private apart from
his tirade against the newspapers at the weekend. However, the
Manchester United manager will want to get to the bottom of reports
that some of his players have been hiring out a city-centre apartment
to run gambling schools.

Ferguson used to have high-placed associates at bookmakers' firms who
would tip him off if one of his players was making large bets and he
has collared, players in the past. It is likely that he would have
spoken to Rooney about the issue, but Ferguson's biggest problem
might be that the advent of many new companies through which players
can place bets will restrict his ability to gain information about
their habits.