The Guardian:
The FA may face a costs bill of more than £500,000 after the governing body withdrew charges of bringing the game into disrepute against Wayne Rooney's agent Paul Stretford at the high court.
The FA brought a number of charges against Stretford after the collapse of a blackmail trial at Warrington Crown Court last year at which he was the chief prosecution witness. The trial related to Stretford's signing of Rooney as a client but the trial judge dismissed the agent's evidence as unreliable.
Stretford is challenging the FA's right to discipline him in private for alleged breaches of its rules and regulations, claiming that this constitutes a breach of his human rights under European law. At the start of the second day of the hearing yesterday the FA's lawyers "voluntarily withdrew" a number of charges arising from Stretford's evidence in Warrington, conceding that they could not be brought without a direction from the original trial judge. Stretford's legal team are now considering an application to force the FA to pay his costs and privately they are delighted that the charges they consider most serious may not apply.
The FA insisted last night that it had not acted unlawfully in bringing the charges and said it would be seeking a direction from the Warrington trial judge to pursue the charges withdrawn yesterday. Whether Stretford faces any of the charges against him in a private FA tribunal or open court - a more important issue for the future of the FA's disciplinary system - depends on the judge's verdict, expected in the next month.