Some of the UK’s most high profile Premier League footballers and other high net worth individuals have invested in the Cobalt Data Centre in Tyneside in Newcastle, in the North of England and are benefiting from substantial tax breaks for doing so.

Among the footballers who invested in the data centre are Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney, club team mate Danny Welbeck, and Tottenham Hotspur’s Aaron Lennon.

The Sunday Times reported that records at Companies House, the UK’s register of company reports showed over 600 people had invested. It said: “Cobalt raised £264m in three months in early 2011 through the enterprise zone tax regime.” The scheme was set up to revive depressed areas.

“Individual investors obtain tax relief – tax credits – on the sums they invest but must keep their money in the scheme for seven years,” the newspaper reported.

Other high net worth individuals from the world of sports who invested include golfer and 2010 US open winner Graeme McDowell, football managers Kenny Daglish, Terry Venables, and Rafa Benitez, and from the world of entertainment comedian Jimmy Carr and David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter films.

The scheme is entirely legal. 

Cobalt was developed by Highbridge Properties.