Rooney's £700,000 gamble

Wayne Rooney: Big debts
12 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is to talk to star striker Wayne Rooney over claims that he has £700,000 in gambling debts, the Football Association said yesterday.

Rooney lost the fortune betting on horse and greyhound races after being introduced to a betting agent by fellow England forward Michael Owen, a Sunday newspaper claimed.

Manchester United star Rooney, 20, and Owen, 26, are said to be among five England players involved in betting on sports other than their own.

The FA said that, while Eriksson would not launch an inquiry, he would speak to the players to establish what the truth of the matter was.

Spokesman Adrian Bevington added: "The FA would like to make it clear we are unaware of any problems in the England team dressing room due to issues surrounding gambling or anything else come to that.

"Under Sven the England team have enjoyed a fantastic spirit within the camp, a fact that is regularly made by the players publicly."

A spokesman for Rooney, who earns an estimated £50,000 a week on the pitch and millions more a year in sponsorship deals, declined to comment on the claims.

But Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson denied his protégé had run up huge debts, and blamed the media for preying on the famous. He said "We have had this with George Best, Paul Gascoigne and we had it with David Beckham.

"We know Wayne Rooney. It is rubbish." Newcastle United player Owen, who owns four racehorses, is known for his love of gambling. His agent declined to discuss the latest claims.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in