BBC doc - player finances

With money in football being a hot topic at the moment from our situation to PSR FFP and £125 million transfers, not sure if anyone saw this expose on ex pros from Brian Deane and Rod Wallace to Danny Murphy getting done over by dodgy financial management firms. Horrible to hear of players with great careers having suicidal thoughts and addictions. 

Football’s Financial Shame: The Story of the V11: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002d2kp via @bbciplayer

19 minutes ago, UDMURT said:

With money in football being a hot topic at the moment from our situation to PSR FFP and £125 million transfers, not sure if anyone saw this expose on ex pros from Brian Deane and Rod Wallace to Danny Murphy getting done over by dodgy financial management firms. Horrible to hear of players with great careers having suicidal thoughts and addictions. 

 

Football’s Financial Shame: The Story of the V11: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002d2kp via @bbciplayer

And the DPP / Government say soz nothing we can do, even though they know it was unlawful..but not enough evidence which would lead to a successful prosecution...blah blah..

Meanwhile HMRC say bad luck, you still owe us £300k / £1m etc etc

......

I missed some of it,  I don't understand how/why players owe big sums to HMRC....

From what I caught, players invest sums of money into ( which have since showed dodgy schemes)

property abroad....

Of course all money disappeared there was no payback, they lost the lot....so how come they owe so much tax, they lost everything?

19 minutes ago, Crazy Daizy said:

And the DPP / Government say soz nothing we can do, even though they know it was unlawful..but not enough evidence which would lead to a successful prosecution...blah blah..

Meanwhile HMRC say bad luck, you still owe us £300k / £1m etc etc

......

I missed some of it,  I don't understand how/why players owe big sums to HMRC....

From what I caught, players invest sums of money into ( which have since showed dodgy schemes)

property abroad....

Of course all money disappeared there was no payback, they lost the lot....so how come they owe so much tax, they lost everything?

 

 

 My understanding from the gfx at around 14 mins  is that the way it was setup was you invest X amount. Say 100k. That 100k is leveraged to gain loans from banks. In some cases up to 1 million. That million is then invested in a film scheme and in return you should get your 100k back and a return of 300k. You would then owe tax in that probably in the usual rejoin or 20 % as a company but you don't have to pay that tax for 15 years (dont ask me why). The company was then taking the film money and telling thier clients to invest in property deals with the profits which would then go belly up. Often the investment company was actually behind the property and it would mysteriously collapse with no money being returned but tax on the original investment being due. To the tune of potentially hundreds of thousands. 

It's really bad what happened to them, they were badly advised and sounds like they were ripped off.

The tax dodge element means sympathy not as strong as it would be otherwise.

They were trying to play the system but it backfired. 

11 minutes ago, owls101 said:

The tax dodge element means sympathy not as strong as it would be otherwise

Why was it a tax dodge?

It was a government scheme to help the British film industry. In return for investing, tax payable on returns was less. Nothing dodgy....unless I've missed something.

58 minutes ago, UDMURT said:

That million is then invested in a film schem

Oh, so they did actually get a roi (film business)  but that money was reinvested in a property scam.?

It would seem that somehow Howard Wilkinson was involved and letters showing a payout to him and not to the players didn't go down too well with Rod Wallace or Brian Deane.

Mr Wilkinson declined to be involved in the documentary or provide a comment !!!

38 minutes ago, Crazy Daizy said:

Why was it a tax dodge?

It was a government scheme to help the British film industry. In return for investing, tax payable on returns was less. Nothing dodgy....unless I've missed something.

HMRC say it was a tax dodge because they closed the loopholes they were exploiting. They said it was "aggressive tax avoidance". 

The players have been hard done by but they are guilty of being "naive", at best.

If they had all invested in something simple and boring like mutual funds they'd all be minted, but they went with the "easy money" option instead.  

50 minutes ago, owls101 said:

HMRC say it was a tax dodge because they closed the loopholes they were exploiting. They said it was "aggressive tax avoidance". 

Can't remember HMRC saying that or the programme makers saying it was a tax dodge...

Though it did affect 70,000 people perhaps it was exploited later, no suggestion the players in the prog. set out to dodge tax

Hansard

This takes us back to 1997, in the midst of the “Cool Britannia” era, in which stars of film and pop attended parties at Nos. 10 and 11 Downing street and the then Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), introduced a full tax relief on investment in small-scale British films in order to encourage investment and promote growth in the British film industry.

Had a few footballers as clients when I worked at a well known bank.

my usual advice was if it looks to good to be true it is 

Diversified portfolio is always the best way to invest 

maximise pension

get a good Lawyer and tax advisor 

As usual a few listen , some don’t and others never bothered to get advice at all. 

11 minutes ago, Crazy Daizy said:

Can't remember HMRC saying that or the programme makers saying it was a tax dodge...

Though it did affect 70,000 people perhaps it was exploited later, no suggestion the players in the prog. set out to dodge tax

 

Hansard

 

This takes us back to 1997, in the midst of the “Cool Britannia” era, in which stars of film and pop attended parties at Nos. 10 and 11 Downing street and the then Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), introduced a full tax relief on investment in small-scale British films in order to encourage investment and promote growth in the British film industry.

 

Not sure what was in the doc but the press reported that HMRC ruled the Knightsbridge schemes were tax avoidance. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/09/02/footballers-victim-investment-fraud-deane-rooney-ferdinand/

15 minutes ago, owls101 said:

Not sure what was in the doc but the press reported that HMRC ruled the Knightsbridge schemes were tax avoidance. 

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/09/02/footballers-victim-investment-fraud-deane-rooney-ferdinand/

 

Thanks 

6 minutes ago, Crazy Daizy said:

Thanks 

They were definitely wronged but some of the reports of what the players did is crazy.

Danny Murphy borrowed £1m from Coutts bank to invest in the film schemes

WTF!?

I listened to an interview with Deane. At the time he was playing, his only thoughts were playing football. Keeping fit, staying in the team. He didn’t have time to focus on his money / invest/ the future. So he took advice - from people recommended by the the premier league. I find it difficult to blame him for any of it tbh

3 minutes ago, Essix Blue said:

I listened to an interview with Deane. At the time he was playing, his only thoughts were playing football. Keeping fit, staying in the team. He didn’t have time to focus on his money / invest/ the future. So he took advice - from people recommended by the the premier league. I find it difficult to blame him for any of it tbh

Sorry, I'm not buying that.

Footballers have a lot of free time, more so in years gone buy when clubs weren't measuring and monitoring them all hours.

They were given bad advice for sure but they were also monumentally stupid and some were probably a little greedy.