AS Wayne Rooney claimed that he remains “the best of pals” with Michael Owen, despite his England strike partner’s role in leading him into high-stakes gambling, there were more questions than answers yesterday about the nature of the betting school in the national team’s dressing-room.

The Manchester United forward, 20, denied that he had fallen out with Owen after he ran up debts of £700,000 with a private bookmaker who is also a business associate of the Newcastle United forward.

“Any suggestion of a rift or a dispute between Wayne and Michael is completely without foundation as far as Wayne is concerned,” a spokesman for Proactive Sports Management, Rooney’s adviser, said. “Wayne and Michael remain the best of pals.”

Owen introduced Rooney and other England team-mates, including Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry, to Stephen Smith, a Leeds-based businessman, after their casual betting became more serious. However, Rooney’s spending spiralled and it emerged in February, when he confided in his agent, Paul Stretford, that he had racked up a debt of £700,000 that he could not easily service, despite his £3 million annual salary. Stretford has been in negotiations with Smith in an effort to resolve the dispute.

Whether Rooney should pay up at all, given that no documentary proof of his debt has been produced despite repeated requests, is the subject of intense debate. Furthermore, gambling debts are considered to be honour debts and are not recoverable under law.

Rooney is understood to have placed his bets with Smith by phone or text message between September and February. He was given unusually large credit and allowed to accrue huge losses. “I would think twice about giving someone that much credit, no matter who he was,” one established bookmaker said. Any suggestion that Smith, operating through a company called Goldchip Ltd, was running an unlicensed bookmaking business has been denied by his solicitors at McKay Law.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court confirmed yesterday that Goldchip was granted its bookmakers’ permit only on Thursday. During the time Rooney was betting, Smith was “properly authorised” to act as an agent to a third-party bookmaker, according to McKay Law. The firm declined to name the bookmaker.

Rumours that it was a big independent bookmaker in the Manchester area led to Fred Done, the founder of Betfred and an avid United fan. “I wish it was me,” he said. “But I’d be shouting from the rooftops if I was owed £700,000.”

According to records at Companies House, Smith is the sole director and shareholder of Goldchip, which was previously called Calco 102 Ltd and is registered at his £2 million mansion in Horsforth. The name change occurred on February 15, soon after Rooney told his agent of his gambling debt.

The haste with which the company — which is classified as non-trading, with net assets of £1 as of March last year — was set up raises questions about its purpose. Smith is unknown to established bookmakers contacted by The Times and the Association of British Bookmakers said that it had never heard of Goldchip.

Rooney’s advisers will hope that their client has learnt a salutary lesson, albeit in the glare of adverse publicity. So, too, does Steve Claridge, a former top-flight footballer and gambling addict. “I hope this has hurt him because if it has, then he will stop,” the veteran striker, who is paying for Walsall in Coca-Cola League One, said. “In 20 years’ time, if he is still betting like that, he won’t have a penny to his name."

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