Premier League footballers have invested an estimated £1billion over the past decade in ‘highly complex’ financial schemes that have left many bankrupt or with severe money headaches, according to a consultant who tries to recover fortunes lost as a result of mis-selling.
Some of the most significant schemes are centred in the film industry and have been operated as legal tax avoidance tools.
Big-name current and former footballers, including David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Keane, Emile Heskey, Frank Lampard, Robbie Savage, Jamie Carragher and Darius Vassell, are known to have invested in them, although there is no suggestion that any of these players have suffered problems.
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Others have not been so fortunate, according to Martin Taylor, of Rebus, a firm that pursues cases on behalf of those who have lost cash. He says his clients include a group of active and recently retired stars from the Premier League.
‘One is close to financial ruin and another was meant to retire but has been forced to continue playing to meet huge tax bills that he wasn’t expecting but are a result of a scheme he invested in years ago,’ said Taylor. ‘I know there are lots of cases and they are the tip of the iceberg.’
Rebus say that a detailed analysis of Companies House records shows that 219 Premier League footballers in the last 15 years have invested in one or more of 128 different ‘tax relief’ schemes, also known as Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes (UCIS).
Players most commonly involved are understood to have played for Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, West Ham, Newcastle and Tottenham and are believed to have invested up to £2.4m each.
According to the Financial Services Authority, USICs are high-risk, speculative investments, unsuitable for the majority of retail customers. They are typically in areas where asset evaluation is hard to assess, such as film, music and fine wine. There is invariably a theoretical possible tax benefit to these schemes.
Taylor says some players were not made aware of the risks of these schemes — with tax deferral rather than avoidance the unexpected outcome — and some were actively encouraged to invest by agents, who took commission but no pastoral care.
The Professional Footballers’ Association say they are aware of problems involving ‘high-profile players’. PFA deputy chief executive Bobby Barnes told Inside Sport: ‘There are issues coming out of some film schemes we know about.’
One London law firm that look after a small stable of Premier League players say it is impossible to quantify the precise sums involved. ‘We’re aware of it,’ said a source. ‘But it’s unlikely many players involved would tell the PFA. If it’s 100 players investing £1m per year over 10 years, it could be £1bn. It could be more.’
Investment: Wayne Rooney (right) and Frank Lampard (left) are two others City off the pace in value leagueWest Bromwich Albion are more valuable than Everton, and Tottenham are worth more than both Manchester City, the Premier League title-holders, and Liverpool, 18-times champions, according to a new ‘rational’ method of valuing football clubs.
Other findings that might surprise some fans are that Manchester United are the only club in England worth more than £1bn (£1,060m to be precise) and, aside from Arsenal (£943m), no other club are worth even half as much as United.
Using a new model developed by football finance expert Tom Markham, Chelsea are worth £510.5m, Tottenham £436m, City £401.1m and Liverpool £352.2m. West Bromwich are worth £127m and Everton £112.3m. Wigan are the least valuable current Premier League club at £42.8m.
Value: Manchester United are worth the most amount of money, with Arsenal behind themMarkham’s model considers income, profits, stadium capacity and usage, debt and other factors to produce a ‘like for like’ price that a ‘neutral’ person might pay for any particular club.
‘City being fifth is not surprising as the club don’t own their stadium, which anyway has only 47.800 seats, much lower than the likes of United and Arsenal,’ says Markham. ‘And they’ve spent over the odds for player transfers and wages.
‘Liverpool are as low as sixth for two main reasons: missing out on the large revenue streams rivals make in the Champions League, losing out to rivals every match day due to their stadium situation. Liverpool earn £1.5m per match day, against Manchester United’s £3.7m.’
Fulham and West Bromwich Albion are two of the less glamorous names that appear on a new list of European football clubs with the most full international players on their books.
They may be the likes of Dimitar Berbatov and Romelu Lukaku rather than Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas but both clubs can boast having 19 players who fit that bill — exactly the same number as Barcelona, according to researchers from the Football Observatory, in Switzerland.
That puts those three clubs in joint 18th place among almost 500 top-division clubs across Europe. Manchester City, Milan and Galatasaray share the No 1 spot, with 24 full internationals each, followed by Manchester United (23) and Arsenal (22).
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