Sir Alex offered Â£7.5m to settle racehorse row

Victoria Fletcher|Patrick Hosking|Evening Standard

14 April 2012

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been offered £7.5million to settle a bitter row over a champion racehorse.

The football boss had become engaged in the dispute - with John Magnier's stud in Ireland - over ownership of Rock of Gibraltar.

Magnier is United's principal shareholder, and it is thought the fight between him and the club's most famous manager could have helped persuade chief executive Peter Kenyon dramatically to leave Manchester for Chelsea yesterday.

However, sources say Ferguson is unlikely to accept the settlement.

His lawyers believe that tens of millions of pounds are at stake if the Rock continues to cover upwards of 250 mares a year at around £60,000 a time.

Magnier became friends with Sir Alex after they were introduced in 1999, later offering to register him as part-owner of the thoroughbred, which was already worth up to £5million.

The agreement meant Sir Alex could race the horse in his own colours, and over the following two years the sight of the soccer boss leading the horse into the winner's enclosure became a familiar sight. The Rock went on to win 13 races, including the English and Irish 2000 Guineas.

Sir Alex claims he was given a 50-per-cent share of the horse, entitling him to 50 per cent of subsequent stud fees. Magnier's version of events, according to racing insiders, is that Sir Alex was offered either a percentage of the horse's prize money or one nomination per year - racing parlance for the fee paid for the horse to mate with a mare.

But when Sir Alex was told in January that he had been " deregistered" as part-owner, he is said to have told Magnier that he was " surprised and upset". Magnier is understood to have offered him a better slice of the stud fees to settle the dispute, but Sir Alex rejected this and instructed lawyers to write to the breeder threatening legal action.

It is thought that the bitter rift could have been at least partly behind Kenyon's abrupt departure. While he has doubled his salary to £1.2million in his move to Chelsea, sources at the club have speculated that he felt caught in the middle of the racehorse battle.

An insider said: "Peter simply decided the grass was greener at Stamford Bridge. He felt he could live without Sir Alex's tantrums." Kenyon is currently on gardening leave and has been replaced by United's managing director, David Gill.

At Chelsea he is expected to bring his off-field marketing expertise to bear on helping make the club a brand leader in the world of football. A former head of sportswear firm Umbro, which supplies Chelsea's kit, he has been in charge at Old Trafford since August 2000.

His influence is believed to have been key to turning the football club into a global business, with tours to the Far East and the US, and he played a key part in arranging sponsorship with Vodafone and Nike.

His move sends a clear signal to the City that Chelsea is determined to become a financial success as well as a winner of trophies.

David Southwell, from the British Retail Consortium, said Chelsea was putting itself in the position to sell itself outside the UK.

"Getting Kenyon will help make the club not just the top name in football, but also in business," he said.

New owner Roman Abramovich will want Kenyon to give Chelsea an international stature and challenge the elite, super-rich clubs like United and Real Madrid as the world's most lucrative football name.

Kenyon's move follows a frenzied £100million spending spree at Stamford Bridge, which saw the arrival of players such as Juan Sebastian Veron and Hernan Crespo - who bring with them international stature and, of course, fans.

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Sir Alex offered Â£7.5m to settle racehorse row

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