FOLLOWING his arrest, and subsequent two-year ban for driving under the influence, Everton’s Wayne Rooney was also fined £170 (plus two week’s wages by his club) and told by the court that he must do 100 hours community service… unpaid work really!
I’d make him clean up the litter after a game at Old Trafford… but, in fact, he’ll probably do it locally – around his posh dwelling in Cheshire!
Listed here are six other footballers (there are a few relatively unknown others) who were made to complete a few weeks community service for crimes/offences they committed:
- Danny Simpson, now of Leicester City, was made to work in a charity shop after being found guilty of assaulting the mother of his child.
- Joey Barton, ex-Newcastle United, Burnley, QPR and Rangers, received a suspended sentence for punching and injuring his Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo in 2007. He was also jailed for ten months after assaulting a teenager… and he, too, has aided the community!
- Eric Cantona, the former Manchester United star, was handed a two-year prison sentence, later reduced, and did some community work following his kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace supporter in 1995.
- Hard man Vinnie Jones, once of Wimbledon, assaulted a neighbour and was charged and found guilty. He then cried after being told to deliver blankets and bed linen to the elderly as a punishment.
- Jody Morris, then of Chelsea, was given a suspended sentence for drink driving but was spared jail because of his ‘quiet, unassuming character’. He did, however, serve the community.
- Jonathan Woodgate, the former Leeds United, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Stoke City and Real Madrid defender, left a student unconscious with a broken nose, fractured cheekbone and crushed leg after a fracas outside a Leeds night club in 2000. He was sentenced to 100 hours community service after being found guilty but his team-mate, Lee Bowyer, was cleared of all charges.
- Other footballers who have been in trouble with the law, some of whom actually went to prison but were spared the indignity of doing community service in public, include Lee Hughes of WBA, jailed for leaving the scene of a road accident in 2004 in which an elderly man was killed…Arsenal defender Tony Adams, found guilty of drink driving in 1990… Gary Croft, ex-Ipswich Town, the first footballer to be fitted with an electric tag who was jailed after admitting to driving whilst disqualified…
Marlon King, Coventry City, who has had 14 convictions against him, for theft, deception, criminal damage, wounding and sexual assault since 2002 and has been jailed three times…
Luke McCormick, the Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper, who was jailed for seven years in 2008 (released in 2012) after killing two children in car crash when under the influence…
Jan Molby of Liverpool was found guilty of dangerous driving in 1988…
Jermain Pennant, Birmingham City, spent 30 days in jail and was fitted with ‘tag’ after a drink driving conviction in 2004; he was later arrested for a public order offence…
Duncan Ferguson jailed for assaulting Raith Rovers player when with Rangers in 1987; he later played for Everton…
And Micky Quinn, ex-Coventry City, Portsmouth and Newcastle United, who was jailed for breaking the law regarding driving bans in 1987.