Wayne Rooney's Court Case

Manchester United star Wayne Rooney are being sued for £4.3 million by Proactive, which is a sports management company. This company had made some lucrative deals with some major companies on the Rooneys behalf. The firm got a commission of 20% on a multimillion-pound contracts signed by the Rooneys to endorse major companies like Nike and Coca-Cola. Former Proactive director, Paul Stretford had been the link between Wayne Rooney and Proactive as he served as Rooney's agent. After Stretford left the agency, Rooney refused to authorise any further payments of commission to Proactive; these commissions amounted to £4.3 million. Proactive is now demanding that Wayne Rooney should pay the £4.3million bill because Paul Stretford had negotiated the deals for Rooney while still working for the agency, but Rooney claims that the commission is entitled to Paul Stretford instead of the agency as he is the one who made the deals.

This is a contractual conflict because Wayne Rooney claims that he and his wife had made the contract with Paul Stretford and not the company, therefore he feels that he is not entitled to pay Proactive any commission. He also says that nobody at Proactive could take care of him like Stretford had done since he was 17years old.

My thought on this case is that the Rooneys are obliged to pay Proactive because at the time the contract was made, Stretford was representing Proactive and not himself. If Rooney did not want the company to be involved, he could have negotiated for a contract between his family and Stretford outside of the company.

Stay tune to the blog for more updates on this case...