[JoshW]

FA investigates Rooney '£700,000 gambling debt'
By Jessica Lamb
(Filed: 09/04/2006)

Claims that Wayne Rooney, the England and Manchester United striker, has run up gambling debts of £700,000 are being investigated by the Football Association.

Sven Goran Eriksson, the England coach, will talk to the £50,000-a-week player about the allegations, the FA said last night. The alleged debts came to light only two months before 20-year-old Rooney and his team-mates play their first match at the World Cup in Germany.


Wayne Rooney: £700,000 debts?
A spokesman for Rooney refused to discuss today's report in the Sunday Mirror, saying: "We have got absolutely no comment to make."

Adam Bevington, the FA director of communications, said: "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 point that is regularly made by the players publicly.

"It's important the fans know that everyone connected to the FA and the England team is determined to do all they can to achieve success in Germany."

But, Mr Bevington added: "There is little the FA can do to prevent any individuals gambling privately on horse or greyhound racing though there are rules preventing betting on any football matches or competitions they are involved in."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...09/ixhome.html

[tacomax]

He's probably the most famous young footballer in the world. He's got some of the most lucrative advertising contracts out there. He got an advance of £5,000,000 for his autobiography even though he's still only 20. I'm thinking that £700,000 in gambling losses (only a few weeks wages from his football club) isn't going to kill him.

More interestingly, he was exposed for shagging "mature" hookers not so long ago. Now that was a better story.

[JoshW]

How mature we talking tacomax?

[tacomax]

It was a while ago, I can't see to find any pictures but here's the essence of the story.

The 18-year-old Everton and England star was caught on CCTV in the seedy vice den he has visited around 10 times, paying £45 a go for sex with prostitutes.

Among them were a mother-of-six who dressed as a cowgirl, a kinky boot-wearing 37-year-old brunette called Gina and a 48-year-old grandmother, known as the Auld Slapper, who wore a rubber cat suit when they had sex.

Astonishingly, rather than try to hide his identity – Rooney’s boy-next-door image is worth £3million to him in sponsorship alone – the young star spent one visit signing autographs in the waiting room!

On another occasion word spread by text message from customers that Rooney was inside. Within minutes, a crowd of 30 fans were at the gates of the brothel chanting his name.

Most remarkable of all, Rooney came within an inch of being nabbed by police in a spot-check on the “massage parlour”.




Despite the risk of public humiliation had he been arrested, dozey Rooney was asleep on a sofa when the police called.

The tapes also show Rooney and a gang of friends – including two Liverpool players who we are not naming – getting turned away from the brothel after a drunken night out. The players shout up to the receptionist: “We don’t care about the cameras. Put us in the paper.” And Rooney yells up the stairs: “I’ll shag you for 50 quid.”

Rooney’s favourite girl was a mixed-race Caribbean model called Amy, who wore pink designer lingerie and high-heels. He also had sex with another hooker wearing a lacy basque and black hold-up stockings.

[pags11]

he'll throw a game here soon, it's inevitable...not good for the game...

[ourbet]

It was a while ago, I can't see to find any pictures but here's the essence of the story.

Here’s a picture of Laura Bush (George W’s wife) bringing Wayne a few bottles of ‘Newkee’ brown ale, his favourite tipple - before yet another shag-fest ‘sesh’.

[tacomax]

he'll throw a game here soon, it's inevitable...not good for the game...

How on earth can a single player in a soccer match (and a striker at that) throw a game?

[CrazyHorse]

How on earth can a single player in a soccer match (and a striker at that) throw a game?

Kick it into his own goal?

[natrass]

Kick it into his own goal?

Hmmm ... do you think that might arouse suspicion if he starts to join the opposition attacks?

[tacomax]

Thanks for helping me out there, Natrass. For a moment, I thought that CrazyHorse had got one over on me.

[pags11]

tacomax,

as usual, really appreciate your positive energy in the forum...are you serious?...how can one guy throw a a soccer game? how can one player throw a basketball game? (just ask Stevin "Headache" Smith of ASU in the 90's)...a QB or a DB has a bad game that's on the take and it will definitely affect the score...if one of the best players is on the take in soccer, it will also affect the score...this is why the NBA, NHL and all of the professional leagues have such issues with guys gambling (especially sports gambling) that play in the league...they get into debt and then leave themselves open for getting back even real quick...

[tacomax]

tacomax,

as usual, really appreciate your positive energy in the forum...

Thanks. I do aim to please.

are you serious?

Yes. You say something odd to say the least and I'm asking you to back up your statement.

how can one guy throw a a soccer game?

Yes. That's the question. How can Wayne Rooney throw a soccer game. You're teasing me now, right?

how can one player throw a basketball game? (just ask Stevin "Headache" Smith of ASU in the 90's)

I didn't ask about basketball. I asked about soccer. Or does Stevin "Headache" Smith know the answer? It certainly seems that you don't.

a QB or a DB has a bad game that's on the take and it will definitely affect the score...if one of the best players is on the take in soccer, it will also affect the score...this is why the NBA, NHL and all of the professional leagues have such issues with guys gambling (especially sports gambling) that play in the league...they get into debt and then leave themselves open for getting back even real quick...

I'll let you know your problem here. You've replied to the question without answering the question in the slightest. This has nothing to to with Wayne Rooney. This has nothing to do with soccer.

Do you want to have another try?

[Santo]

IMO The only person capable of fixing a soccer game is the GoalKeeper (See Bruce Grobbelaar - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Grobbelaar)... An outfield player kicking it into his own net arouses suspicion, a goalkeeper diving slightly late and not quite reaching a shot into the corner doesn't so much.

[tacomax]

Yes, only the goalkeeper or the referee can have enough of an influence over a soccer game to dictate it's outcome to any effect and by arousing the least suspicion. Wayne Rooney is neither a goalkeeper nor a referee.

But I'm prepared to be taught something here by pags11.

[maxpower]

there are many ways to loose a game ,every player on the field has the opportunity to harm his team realy bad if he wants.just think about stupid fouls giving the other team freekicks near to the goal or offsetting an offside trap creating chances for the other team ,loosing the ball in middfield when your whole team is in attack etc
has anyone from you ever played soccer ?

[tacomax]

Yes, there are many ways to throw a game. As CrazyHorse said, you could just keep kicking the ball into your own net. However, as has been pointed out, that's a little bit obvious.

If you want to throw an individual game then you need to 100% guarantee a loss and you need to do it without arousing any suspicion. If a player continually gives the ball away or keeps committing fouls then he'll either be sent off for misconduct or substituted by the manager. That will ensure they're not on the pitch for the full 90 minutes and you'll need to be on the pitch for the full game to ensure a loss to any degree.

As Santo said, the player on the pitch who is most able to dictate the outcome of a game to any degree is the goalkeeper. Remember, we're talking ways of throwing a game and 100% ensuring a loss. An outfield player playing badly can lessen the strength of the team as a whole as so heighten the liklihood of a loss. But we want a guaranteed loss - an increased chance of a loss isn't the same thing.

[natrass]

In reality with todays European bookies you get such a choice of bets that you would be an idiot to bet on the score.

For example, bet against/for himseld scoring, bookings, corners, first booking, etc.

I think I am right in saying that the only proven cases in football where fixing has occurred has been on a collusion level, usually with the opponents.

I may be wrong and maybe it is just a fluke but there has never been a proven case of one player fixing a game indiviudally ... because, for the reasons above, and as Grobbellaar himself said, its actually pretty hard to do in reality.

The exception is the referee ... hes the man with the tools.

[JoshW]

Rooney betting 'out of control'
By PAUL HAYWARD, Daily Mail

07:39am 11th April 2006

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Reader comments (8)

Wayne Rooney's huge gambling debts have not been erased by the frantic attempts of his to shift the blame on to a company set up by a friend of Michael Owen.
Sources say there is no truth in claims by Rooney's spokesman that he was encouraged to bet too heavily and was not protected when he started to run up huge debts.

Instead the England star chased his losses to the point where he reached his credit ceiling.


Fortunately for Rooney, strike partner Owen appears not to have taken offence at the accusation that Smith's company failed to warn Rooney

At a meeting this week between Stephen Smith's Goldchip Ltd and Rooney's agent, Paul Stretford, both sides will attempt to repair the damage to the relationship between the two England strikers.

But Rooney's attempt to wriggle out of a £700,000 debt by suggesting through his lawyers that Goldchip had no legal authority to take his bets seems guaranteed to fail.

A campaign to discredit Smith, a respectable Yorkshire businessman who set up Goldchip as a conduit between footballers and bookmakers, has merely focused attention on Rooney's reckless gambling and his questionable attempts to avoid settling his account.

A spokesman for Rooney phoned newspaper reporters on Sunday to tell them: "Michael should be someone who puts his arm round Wayne's shoulder." He then added a libellous remark to reinforce his point.

Later, Stretford tried to dissociate himself from this attack and attempted to reassure the Owen camp that Rooney bore no ill-feeling towards his England colleague.

That belated damage limitation exercise was backed up by a statement from Rooney's spokesmen yesterday denying that there was any sinister intent in Sunday's calls.

The belief is that Rooney panicked

Fortunately for the younger of Sven-Goran Eriksson's world renowned strikers, Owen appears not to have taken offence at the accusation that Smith's company failed to warn Rooney against dangers of such heavy gambling.

Equally, Owen's representatives have played down the significance of Rooney's aides claiming that Owen should not have introduced his young team-mate to 'these people'.

Sources insist that Rooney was advised several times to ease back on the scale and frequency of his betting.

They also reject the claim made by the Manchester United forward's camp that Stretford's Proactive group requested written details of his betting. They say that no one on Rooney's side asked to see his accounts, though those ledgers do exist.

The belief among those close to the story is that Rooney panicked when he reached his credit limit and could no longer chase his losses by placing further bets.

When the debt became payable to, or through, Smith's company, Rooney's lawyers began the process of challenging Goldchip's legality.

The dispute entered the public domain when a Sunday newspaper revealed the extent of Rooney's debt and claimed that John Terry, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand were also high-profile clients.

Smith, 57, grew friendly with Terry Owen, Michael's father, when the two were at Bradford City: Owen as a player and Smith as commercial manager.

Smith, who escaped death in the Bradford stadium inferno of 1985, has since become a close ally of the Owen family and joined forces with England's senior striker as head of Owen Promotions — which handle the player's property portfolio and some commercial tie-ups, although SFX are his main agents.

Goldchip Ltd was set up at Michael Owen's suggestion to provide a link between footballers wanting to place bets and the big bookmakers, from where details about celebrity betting frequently find their way into news pages.

Rooney's ferocious gambling raises fresh doubts about his ability to cope with fame and wealth

The firm was designed to provide a secure, independent connection between players and layers. Thus a bookie taking a bet via Smith's company would not know the identity of the gambler.

Smith is a mainstream retail expert based in Leeds who first made an impact with the Grattan and Freemans catalogue empires before joining the British Shoe Corporation and then Bata Europe — the world's biggest shoe trader.

Four years ago he sold his own footwear firm to a German rival and began working full-time with Owen. He is not a specialist bookmaker and has no background in gambling.

As journalists gathered outside his house and Rooney's aides falsely questioned his right to handle bets, Smith was cast as a victim of the young star's unwillingness to settle a legitimate gambling debt.

While Owen may be questioning the wisdom of helping friends place bets through a securely managed channel, Rooney's ferocious gambling raises fresh doubts about his ability to cope with fame and wealth.

For many of today's one-man corporations, gambling is a way of buying an adrenalin rush without drugs or alcohol. Old-school heavy drinking is no longer an option for players performing in 50 or 60 high-pace, high intensity games each season.

Amorous impulses, meanwhile, lead straight to the news pages of the more salacious papers.

The volume and pace of Rooney's betting is said to have alarmed those who saw him in action. And his attempts to portray himself as a naive beginner led astray by more experienced colleagues is convincing no one in the bookmaking industry, where the one inviolable rule is that losing punters settle their debts.

[totobernal]

I may be wrong and maybe it is just a fluke but there has never been a proven case of one player fixing a game indiviudally ... because, for the reasons above, and as Grobbellaar himself said, its actually pretty hard to do in reality.

The exception is the referee ... hes the man with the tools.

A clear example is in the world cup 2002.. South Korea vs Spain... it was a clear fix of the game to make the world cup host could advance to the next round.. and that referee is not able to be in a game as a referee any more... and involving betting.. there has been cases with referees.. right now I don't remember from where.. but I think it was somewhere in south america..

[Dark Horse]

Easiest thing in the world to fix a game. Just some examples.

- Don't do your defensive duties. Give your direct opponent free reign. This is very common in soccer so not a give-away at all. Especially star players, like Rooney, get away with it, expecting the role players to do the dirty work for them.

- Obviously it is very easy to kick the ball high over the goal instead of in the net. Nobody would think twice about that either. Happens all the time. Just lean back slightly when you shoot and the ball will fly way over.

- Goalies. Not the most likely candidates. I have a video somewhere of the Aston Villa goalie, in this years Premier league, letting through a throw-in (!!!) from one his own defenders. I guarantee you that wasn't fixed, because that would be way to obvious. A goalie could time his dive a bit late, though. Or remain nailed to the ground.

- Don't make the sliding when an opponent is about to break through. Or be caught off balance, so the players slips by.

In short, if you want to throw the game it is easy. And with today's Asian handicaps all you have to do is pointshave. If Manchester wins by 1 goal on Friday, Sunderland backers cash in.

FWIW, the Columbian international that kicked the ball into his own net against the USA in the 1994 world cup, was killed shortly after. Probably not a fix...

[isetcap]

Look what gambling losses did to Michael Jordan.

Look at what gambling losses did to Phil Mickelson.
It's not enough that God made him look the way he does, but to further humiliate him, a bunch of golfing geezers keep making him put on a green jacket.

The tabloids are reporting, surprisingly enough, that the 20-year old Rooney likes to shag and happens to be a great fade. Sounds like every 20-year old in Liverpool that I have ever met.

[pags11]

maxpower,

I completely agree with your statement...

darkhorse,

excellent post with good examples...

tacomax,

it's obvious you weren't an athlete...there's never a 100% guarantee you can have a team lose a game...even if the majority of the team is in on the fix, those that aren't can have a good game and the team can still win and cover...or the coach can sniff it out as did the ASU basketball coach in their point shaving scandal...to make a comment like that is ridiculous...this is sports we are talking about...anything can happen...even the guy's that try to fix the games know this...

my point is and was that a star player like that getting into deep debt is not good for the league because it's just asking for shadiness...

to answer your question regarding how he'd potential do it...a star soccer player could miss a couple of shots on goal on purpose, possibly a penalty kick, have himself taken out more frequently due to being tired, take all of his teammates out the night before a game and get them shit-faced (w/ hookers too)...go back and read all of the point-shaving scandals throughout the course of history...it's a lot easier than you think to have a star player influence the outcome of a game...

[tacomax]

it's obvious you weren't an athlete...

And it's bleeding obvious you don't know a thing about how to throw a soccer match. Or not throw one as the case may be.

there's never a 100% guarantee you can have a team lose a game...even if the majority of the team is in on the fix, those that aren't can have a good game and the team can still win and cover

So even if the majority of the team are trying to throw the game, there's no guarantee of a loss. So a single player on a football pitch (and a striker to boot) isn't going to be very successful, is he?

After claiming that "he'll throw a game here soon, it's inevitable" you now admit that you can't guarantee that one player can have a team lose a game.

Thankyou. I thought I was wasting my time with you but you get there in the end. Well done.

[pags11]

tacomax,

you are twisting words here...being on the take and guaranteeing a loss are two different things...your original question to me asked how one player could affect an outcome of a game...I gave you my answer...all of this other stuff you bring up is just BS...you continue to sharpen your debating skills, but I've seen zero for you when it comes to handicapping skills...try not to put all of your eggs in one basket...

[tacomax]

tacomax,

you are twisting words here...being on the take and guaranteeing a loss are two different things...your original question to me asked how one player could affect an outcome of a game...I gave you my answer...all of this other stuff you bring up is just BS...

I'm twisting nothing. You said something dumb, I asked you to back it up and you're just digging yourself a bigger and bigger hole.

You said that Wayne Rooney would "throw a game here soon". I said it wan't possible for him to throw a game. A boxer can throw a match. A single striker in a team game of soccer cannot throw a game.

Any fool (which you've now proved by saying the same thing yourself) knows that a player on a team can play a sub-optimal game that and thus lessen the probability of his team winning but this does not equate to throwing a game.

you continue to sharpen your debating skills, but I've seen zero for you when it comes to handicapping skills...try not to put all of your eggs in one basket...

You seem to revel in the fact that you're an "internet celebrity" and a top handicapper. I don't care. people who are good at what they do don't need to brag about it - deduce from that what you want. If you get a kick out of boasting on internet forums then good luck to you, son.

I'll stick to what I do and you stick to scouring the internet for your free $25 sportsbook accounts and we'll both be happy, OK?

[pags11]

tacomax,

god damn right I'm an internet celebrity...how'd you finish in the NCAA Tournament Contest here?...oh that's right, you suck at handicapping, I forgot...oh, that's right, I won $500...that's how you develop a rep, by picking winners...your big decisions to be whether or not to move out of your mom's basemasement or which 99 cent value menu is the best out of all of the fast food joints...

you have split hairs over this whole discussion and it's become tiresome...I've made my points and backed them up...you cut and paste and give your opinions...I don't agree with them, but I do respect where they come from...you should start showing me as well as the other posters around here a little bit more respect...it really seems like you just like to pick fights pulling this bullshit...

I'm over it...we'll see you this college football season over at the college football forum and see how you hang...if you're too much of a little bitch, then shut your trap and leave me alone...I'm gonna go bang hot broads this weekend, I'm out...

[tacomax]

pags11, it's time for your nappy change.

[pags11]

no more chit-chatting tacomax...we settle this on the field come football season...