Football legend 'has wide range of dishonest contacts'

John Hyland, 42, Christopher Bacon, 34 and Anthony Bacon, 38, all deny blackmail by demanding money with menaces in June 2003.

A jury at Warrington Crown Court today saw Mr Stretford, who founded the successful Proactive Agency, being cross-examined by Hyland’s barrister Lord Carlile QC.

The barrister also drew attention to the role in a meeting of football legend Kenny Dalglish whom he suggested had “unsavoury friends” and “a wide range of contacts among dishonest people”.

Lord Carlile also asked Mr Stretford if it was true that he had received an arrangement fee from Manchester United for the transfer of Wayne Rooney.

When Mr Stretford said he had received the fee, Lord Carlile said: “But Manchester United is not your client, Wayne Rooney is your client. What is that if it is not a conflict of interest?”

Mr Stretford replied: “I don’t see it as a conflict of interest. It’s the normal course of the business.”

When asked by Lord Carlile if he was “milking the cow from both ends”, Mr Stretford replied: “We are not milking any cow at both ends. It’s the normal structure of the business.”

Lord Carlile said: “You know perfectly well that if this sort of arrangement, making money from two clients, happened in any other business, subject to guidelines it would be unacceptable.”

Mr Stretford replied: “I can’t speak for other businesses but it’s the normal business structure in our industry.”

The jury also heard further details of a meeting, arranged by Kenny Dalglish, which was attended by the convicted criminal Tommy Adams, described in court as a “notorious gangster”.

Mr Stretford told police that Kenny Dalglish had told him to attend a meeting in London on November 13, 2002, after associates of Rooney’s first agent had begun demanding a share of Stretford’s profits from the young striker.

Mr Dalglish was a long-term friend of Mr Stretford and a Proactive shareholder.

Mr Stretford claimed he had no idea that Tommy Adams would be attending the meeting.

He told the jury that he did not ask Mr Dalglish why it was to be held in London or who would be attending.

Lord Carlile said: “You knew full well that Kenny Dalglish had engineered for one of his unsavoury friends to come and facilitate this meeting.

“It was you who brought in the heavy mob, wasn’t it?”

Mr Stretford replied: “Absolutely not.”

Mr Stretford told the jury that “fear and confusion” prevented him from leaving the meeting when he saw who was present.

Mr Stretford had told police that Tommy Adams had said to him that ’he understood there was a problem, a matter that needed to be sorted out for everyone’s benefit and that he had been brought in merely to arbitrate’.

Lord Carlile asked him why he did not use a formal sporting tribunal, which is staffed by legal professionals, rather than “people who have just emerged from seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment imposed by the Old Bailey and have reputations as one of London’s leading gangsters”.

Mr Stretford repeated that he had not known who would be present at the meeting.

Lord Carlile also grilled Mr Stretford on why he had recommended that the Rooney family take legal advice from a Liverpool solicitor called Kevin Dooley, who at that time was under investigation for defrauding his clients and was later struck off.

Mr Dooley, who has since died, was also the solicitor of Kenny Dalglish, the court heard.

Lord Carlile said: “Kenny Dalglish has a wide range of contacts among dishonest people, doesn’t he?”

Mr Stretford replied: “I think that is a very unfair thing to say.”

Mr Stretford insisted he had not known that Kevin Dooley had been under investigation and that he had not seen media reports on the matter.

He said he had chosen to recommend Mr Dooley after discussions with Kenny Dalglish, and told the jury that he did not regret that choice.

The case is expected to last for at least another week.