Robbie Williams Will Have To Get His Kicks In New Ways

10/31/07 5:00pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

Robbie Williams has shut down his Los Angeles soccer team after discovering that two of his teammates apparently conned him out of $400,000 U.S.

The 33-year-old British pop star has lived in Beverly Hills for six years and established LA Vale two years ago so he could play his favourite sport with his friends. Two of those pals allegedly convinced Williams to give them the money to help establish a fashion label in New York City, but they spent the cash partying instead.

Things came to a head on the weekend, when Williams kicked his various hangers-on out of his mansion, where many of them hung out and even stayed, and announced that he was folding the soccer team (inadvertently destroying the fantasies of a Toronto music publicist and avid Williams fan who tells tales of attending his matches).

"It was as if the penny had finally dropped and Robbie realised he was being taken for a mug," a source told England's The Daily Mirror newspaper. "There was a screaming row between him and several people.

"He accused them all of taking advantage. He ordered them all out of his house and told them not to come back. But it was when he disbanded the team that everyone became convinced he meant business. It's very much his pride and joy."

Williams was a player and the manager of the squad, and would often train for up to three hours a day with them on a soccer pitch located on his estate.

To throw salt in Williams' wounds, he's also just been banned from performing at a Dubai racetrack after his concert there last year apparently upset thoroughbred horses owned by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Williams was paid more than $2 million to perform, and a planned follow-up concert was set to be the biggest ever held in the wealthy Arab emirate.

In other Williams news: He's not gay. Really.