Paul Stretford
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Paul Stretford is an English football agent. In 1987, he founded Proactive Sports Management, renamed Formation Group in 2004, which went on to represent, amongst others, England footballer
Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while ...
. In 2010 Rooney revealed as part of his evidence during a court case that Stretford received 20% of his off-field earnings, an amount the player regarded as being fair. Stretford has frequently been embroiled in legal disputes and his methods have been criticised. As part of the same court case in 2010 Stretford admitted that when he first represented the 17-year-old Rooney, he had not explained to the player, or to his father, what documents were being signed or what their effects would be – something the prosecuting barrister called "absolutely extraordinary"."Wayne Rooney 'unaware' of Everton deal details"
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, 10 February 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2011.


Career


Beginnings

Stretford's first deal was Frank Stapleton's transfer from the French club
Le Havre AC Le Havre Athletic Club (; commonly referred to as Le Havre) is a French association football club based in Le Havre, Normandy. The club was founded as an athletics and rugby club in 1872, making Le Havre AC the oldest professional French fo ...
to
Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
in 1989.Connett, David
"The player: How Paul Stretford has changed football for ever"
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
, 24 October 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2011.


Larger Dealings

Among the major players Stretford went on to represent were Andrew Cole and
Stan Collymore Stanley Victor Collymore (born 22 January 1971) is an English football pundit, sport strategist, and former player who played as a striker from 1990 to 2001, most notably for Nottingham Forest and later Liverpool, who he joined from the for ...
.Ridley, Ian
"FA must not let Stretford off the hook"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 17 October 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2011. In January 1995 Stretford negotiated Cole's transfer from Newcastle United to Manchester United for a then record British transfer fee of £7 million. Stretford's connection with Manchester United had begun in 1994, with his involvement in the £1.2 million transfer of David May to the club from
Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
.Ogden, Mark
"Wayne Rooney's future in the hands of former vacuum cleaner salesman Paul Stretford"
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
, 19 October 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2011. Cole considered the agent a friend and on moving to Manchester had stayed at Stretford's house, later discovering that rent had been deducted from his earnings. "Stretford wasn't motivated by friendships, but money" Cole said in a 2010 article.Cole, Andrew
"Rooney's agent and how he treated me"
The National, 22 October 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2011. A legal case that in January 2011 was moving through the Portuguese courts suggested that for a time Stretford co-operated with the
Gestifute Gestão de Carreiras de Profissionais Desportivos, S.A., known as GestiFute, is a Portuguese company providing agent services for footballers. Unlike other football associations, Portugal allowed other parties to own part of the economic rights o ...
agency run by the Portuguese football agent,
Jorge Mendes Jorge Paulo Agostinho Mendes (born 7 January 1966) is a Portuguese football agent. He is registered with the Portuguese Football Federation and heads the GestiFute company, founded in 1996. Mendes is among the most influential football agents i ...
, to bring Portuguese players into British football. According to claims made by Formation in that legal suit, agent's fees were shared between Gestifute and Formation in the deals that brought
Hugo Viana Hugo Miguel Ferreira Gomes Viana (; born 15 January 1983) is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. After starting out at Sporting CP he moved abroad at the age of 19, going on to have unassuming spell ...
to Newcastle United for around €12 million in 2002, Nuno Capucho to Rangers in 2003 and
Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...
from Sporting Clube de Portugal to Manchester United for £12.24 million in the same year.Conn, David
"Court case that shows who gets what from football's richest transfers"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 18 January 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2011. Formation were pursuing Gestifute for what they claimed were unshared fees on subsequent deals.


Flotation

Proactive Sports Management was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2001 with a valuation of more than £30 million.Winrow, Ian
"Wayne Rooney's agent, Paul Stretford, banned"
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
, 10 July 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2011. The list of the company's shareholders was later described as "a Who's Who of the footballing fraternity", and included the managers and former players
Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...
, Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan,
Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...
and
Peter Reid Peter Reid (born 20 June 1956) is an English football manager, pundit and former player. A defensive midfielder in his playing days, Reid enjoyed a long and successful career. He built his reputation as one of England's brightest midfield tale ...
.Walsh, Conal and Campbell, Denis
"Is being inside offside?"
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
, 19 May 2002. Retrieved 18 January 2011. In 2008 the company was reported to have 130 employees.


Wayne Rooney


Transfer to Manchester United

In 2004 Stretford was paid a reported £1.5 million as part of the £27 million transfer of
Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while ...
from Everton F.C. to Manchester United. At the time the amount was understood to be the biggest payment ever received by an English-based agent.Taylor, Daniel and Fifield, Dominic
"Rooney's agent picks up £1.5m"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 1 September 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2011. Stretford received £1 million, with a further £500,000 to follow when Rooney saw out the duration of the contract.


Blackmail Case and FA Charge of Misconduct

The circumstances under which Rooney came to be represented by Stretford, rather than his original agent, Peter McIntosh, were the subject of an extended dispute. An associate of McIntosh, Dave Lockwood, attempted to get Stretford to pay out a share of his earnings from Rooney's representation, engaging John Hyland, a former Olympic boxer, to help in the attempt. One meeting to settle the issue was attended by Tommy Adams, member of a London family who have been called "worse than the Krays"Herbert, Ian Herbert and Beard, Matthew
"Sport's hottest property, a collapsed trial, and the seedy world of football"
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
, 12 October 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2011. and a man described once in court as "a notorious gangster".Jackson, Jamie
"Gangsters, blackmail and sleaze in the ugly game"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 17 October 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2011. Adams had been invited by Kenny Dalglish, a shareholder in Stretford's Proactive agency, who had advised Rooney's parents to change his representation. At one stage Stretford had £250,000 in cash ready to pay off Hyland, although the money never changed hands. At a subsequent meeting at a Cheshire Hotel in June 2003, Stretford claimed that he was physically threatened by Hyland and two other men, Christopher and Tony Bacon, who were reportedly Australian cage-fighting champions. That meeting had been secretly videoed by Stretford who went to the police, leading to Hyland and the Bacons being charged with attempted blackmail. When the case came to court in October 2004, however, it collapsed when it was revealed that Stretford had given misleading evidence. Stretford had told the jury that he had not represented Rooney before December 2002, but documents came to light revealing that their association dated to at least September of that year when the player was still contracted to McIntosh's Pro-Form Sports Management Limited. The prosecution barrister said "we do not feel able to rely on Paul Stretford as a witness in this case".Press Associatio
"Three cleared in Rooney agent case"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 11 October 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2011. Stetford stepped down as a director of Formation.Kelso, Paul
"Rooney's agent quits board after collapse of trial"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 15 October 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2011. The case led to
the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
charging Stretford with misconduct in June 2005, a case he at first attempted to have heard in a public court"Stretford fails in FA court bid"
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, 17 March 2006. Retrieved 21 January 2011. and then challenged on the ground that the FA's disciplinary procedures did not comply with Article 6 of the
European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...
and that one of the FA's rules was an unlawful restraint of trade –claims rejected by the Court of Appeal in March 2007. In July 2008 the FA found Stretford guilty of seven of the nine counts against him, including making false and/or misleading statements to the police and in court."Rooney agent accepts lengthy ban"
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, 1 May 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2011. The commission found that Stretford had "encouraged Mr Rooney and his parents to enter into a representation agreement with Proactive Sports Management Limited on 17 July 2002 although he knew Mr Rooney was still then under contract with Pro-Form Sports Management Limited.""Rooney's agent given 18-month ban"
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, 9 July 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2011. A charge of enticing Rooney away from his previous agent was not proven but the FA also stated that: "The commission found that Mr Stretford had made a misleading witness statement and had given untruthful evidence in court in criminal proceedings in Warrington Crown Court, particularly in relation to the existence, dates and nature of those representation agreements dated 17 July 2002 and 19 September 2002." Stretford maintained that he believed those two contracts were for image rights onlyConn, David
"Wayne Rooney's arch adviser heads for another big pay day"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 20 October 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2011. and that the pivotal document was signed in error by Proactive's chief executive, Neal Rodford, without Stretford's knowledge. A further charge of entering into a representation contract with Rooney for eight years was also proved, the limit for written contracts being two years, as were two charges of failing to lodge representation contracts with the FA. Stretford was fined £300,000 and banned for 18 months, half of which was suspended. He called the verdicts of the disciplinary panel "a travesty", appealing the decision and then taking the case to arbitration before accepting the 9-month ban on 1 May 2009.


Sued by Proactive

Stretford 'left' Proactive in October 2008, citing "huge and irreconcilable differences" that were believed to centre on his relationship with the firm's board. Proactive in fact sacked Stretford for "acts of gross misconduct" and sued Stretford in an attempt to recover the £1.6 million it had paid for Stretford's breach of FA regulations. £300,000 of the total was the FA's fine, with £1.3 million in legal costs. In July 2009 Stretford in turn issued a writ to Proactive's Neil Rodford in an effort to make him personally liable for the £1.6 million. Proactive also claimed it was entitled to £4.3 million from Rooney as the 20% commission payments on the contracts brokered by Stretford while he was at the firm.Press Associatio
"Manchester United's Wayne Rooney wins court case brought by Proactive"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 15 July 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2011."Wayne Rooney defends agent in £4.3m contract dispute"
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, 12 February 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2011. The judge in the case ruled in part in favour of the footballer, saying that the contract Rooney had signed with Stretford's Formation as a 17-year-old player had amounted to a "restraint of trade", running as it did for eight years, six years longer than recommended by the Football Association but did find in favour of Proactive for its "restitutional remedy" claim element. Proactive were awarded a thus far indeterminate "quantum meruit" payment by Wayne Rooney / his company which is the subject of a further legal hearing. Proactive also won the right to appeal the "restraint of trade" judgement and the courts will hear this appeal in July 2011 whilst Stretford will defend the £1.6m claim Proactive has brought against him later in the year. Proactive was also awarded £90,000 in respect of its full claim against Mrs Rooney / her company (who chose not to attend court and offer any personal defence to the claim brought against her and her company).


Contract Negotiations

During negotiations for a new contract in October 2010, Wayne Rooney announced that he wanted to leave Manchester United, only to agree a new 5-year deal days later."Wayne Rooney stays at Manchester United after signing five-year deal"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 22 October 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2011. Stretford was criticised for his part in these events, with Manchester United's manager
Sir Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all tim ...
later saying that Stretford was "not the most popular man in the world – certainly at our club".Taylor, Danie
"Sir Alex Ferguson reveals agents' outrageous demands to United"
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 2 January 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2011. Further background information on Mr Stretford is contained in John Sweeney's book "Rooney's Gold".;


New Agency

On leaving Proactive Stretford set up Triple S Sports and Entertainment Group with former Newcastle United owner
Freddie Shepherd Freddy Shepherd (29 October 1941 – 25 September 2017) was an English businessman and the chairman of Newcastle United football club from 1997 until 2007. During his time at Newcastle, both as an active assistant to and later replacement of ...
and his son Kenneth. Stretford had a lengthy association with Newcastle. He first represented Andrew Cole while he was a player at the club, suggested by a second player,
Scott Sellars Scott Sellars (born 27 November 1965) is an ex English football coach and former professional footballer who is ex Technical Director at Wolverhampton Wanderers. As a player, he was a winger who made more than 500 appearances, notably playing ...
, and Kenneth Shepherd had formerly been employed by Proactive Sports Management, working for Stretford from an office in Newcastle's St James Park. According to Manchester United's chief executive, David Gill, Wayne Rooney's original transfer to Manchester United was provoked by Newcastle's apparent interest in the player.


Rylands F.C.

In 2018 Stretford became owner of Rylands F.C., a football club based in Warrington, England. Paul had played for this club in the 1970s.BBC Sport
Wayne Rooney's agent Paul Stretford has non-league dream - BBC Sport
accessdate: February 29, 2020


References


External links


Formation Group PLC Official SiteTriple S Sports and Entertainment Group Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stretford, Paul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British sports agents