Rooney's agent gets huge ban and fine

Wayne Rooney's agent Paul Stretford has been fined £300,000 and banned from working as a football agent for 18 months, the Football Association announced today.

The independent disciplinary commission's sanctions follow charges brought by the FA against the founder of Proactive Sports Management relating to how he acquired the right to represent Manchester United's then Everton striker in 2002.

The charges were also for improper conduct in relation to Stretford "making false and/or misleading witness statements to police and giving false and/or misleading testimony to Warrington Crown Court".

The ban will not take effect until Stretford, who described the verdict as a "travesty", has had his appeal heard. The second nine months of the suspension will not be invoked if he is found to have not broken any other regulations. The commission ruled as "proved" seven of nine charges for breaches of the FIFA players' agent regulations.

They included failing to protect Rooney's interests and failing to respect the rights of third parties. This included enticing Rooney to join Stretford when he was still under contract with Pro-Form Sports Management Limited."

However, a charge of enticing Rooney away from his previous agent was not proven.

In relation to the crown court case, the commission found proven two improper conduct charges .

A further charge of entering into a representation contract with Rooney for eight years - six years longer than the two-year limit for written contracts between agents and their clients - was also proved.

Two charges of failing to lodge representation contracts with the FA were also proved, but a third was not.

Stretford said: "These charges came about as a result of my appearance at a criminal trial as a witness for the prosecution against men accused of blackmailing me with menaces.

"The FA seems almost wilfully to have cast me as the accused in the trial rather than a prosecution witness acting properly in the interests of justice. I shall continue to fight against these unjust charges."