The owners of The Sun and News of the World newspapers have agreed to pay Wayne Rooney damages of ?100,000 over false allegations they printed of him having slapped his girlfriend Coleen McLaughlin in a Chesire nightclub last year.

It took a trip to the High Court for the newspapers to admit that their “story” was false despite a year of protestations from Wayne Rooney and his legal advisors and with the World Cup less than two months away all parties concerned will be glad to get another potentially embarassing situation cleared up.

A statement from the two newspapers said: “With only 58 days to the start of The World Cup, The Sun and The News of The World are pleased to have reached a settlement with Wayne Rooney.

“We can now put this case behind us and focus on a great tournament.

“We wish him and the England team every success in Germany and look forward to welcoming them back with the World Cup trophy.”

A bit rich seeing as they made the whole thing up between them but it wouldn’t be like either of those two newspapers to let the truth get in the way of a good soundbite or headline, even when it’s their liking for unconventional “reporting” that has led them into the situation where they need one.

The owners of Burberry needn’t start expecting a windfall from the ?100,000 damages the Manchester United striker has received though, he’s very thoughtfully decided to donate it all to charity.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Football Legal News. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.