NEWS ROUND-UP

Wayne Rooney is poised to sign a lucrative new sponsorship deal with German car giant Audi. The 20-year-old England and Manchester United striker is expected to announce the agreement in the next two weeks.

Audi will become the fourth personal sponsor of Rooney, joining EA Games, Coca-Cola and Nike. Those deals net Rooney around £5 million a year on top of his £2.6 million-a-year salary at Old Trafford.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has placed a limit of five sponsorships on Rooney in an effort to avoid him being distracted from his football.

Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has ruled out the possibility that the club will start disclosing all their transfer fees, despite calls for greater transparency in the wake of the Lord Stevens bungs inquiry.

Hill-Wood also made the bold claim that he was confident the north London side would not be named as one of the eight clubs whose transfers have been singled out for further investigation. He told shareholders at the club's AGM yesterday:

“David Dein has had a number of meetings with the Quest people under Lord Stevens and I don't think we have any problem with bungs. A number of our transfer agreements have confidentiality agreements, so we certainly would not be able to disclose all of them, so it's better to keep quiet.”

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that for all the earlier bluster, only Harry Redknapp has so far issued legal proceedings against Panarama for their bungs programme:

“Kevin Bond, the Bournemouth manager, who was featured in last month's Panorama football bung exposé, will next week go to the high court to demand access to unseen footage left on the cutting-room floor by the BBC.

“In the aftermath of the programme several of those featured, including Bond, Portsmouth's manager Harry Redknapp and the Bolton manager Sam Allardyce, threatened to sue over corruption allegations.

“To date only Redknapp has filed a libel claim against the BBC. Prior to transmission his solicitor filed a writ alleging that the pre-publicity, which they claimed originated from the BBC, was defamatory.

“The BBC has already agreed to hand over material not included in the programme to the FA, which is conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into the allegations.”

From the Telegraph:

Wembley Stadium will open "as early as possible" next year after the Football Association resolved their long-running dispute with builders Multiplex.

An extra payment of £36 million from the FA to the Australian firm has been agreed after a lengthy dispute over the cost – but it will only be paid on condition that the £800 million stadium is ready for a grand opening at the FA Cup final on May 19.

The agreement hinges on Multiplex ensuring that the work is completed. Sources at the company confirm that the vast majority is now done.