Well known name footballers face bankruptcy and poverty

smileyj1987

CSF wrote: »

Its funny seeing this thread and the Footballers You Met And How Were They thread as the top 2 on the forum.

Hilarious that the general consensus on here is one of resentment for the huge sums that these people have accumulated and the extravagant lifestyles they enjoy as a result, but we'd still be horrified if one of these guys didn't want to talk to us in a pub.

I have no problem personally with the money they make at all , it's not them who decide to be paid 100,000 a week that's the clubs.
I do think the clubs have a duty of care to these people to make sure they are read for a life after football.

CSF

smileyj1987 wrote: »

I have no problem personally with the money they make at all , it's not them who decide to be paid 100,000 a week that's the clubs.
I do think the clubs have a duty of care to these people to make sure they are read for a life after football.

Fair enough, the general consensus I've gotten though is that these people are obligated to the general public, not even just the supporters who 'pay his wages'. If some random stranger wants him to stop for an autograph, a chat and a photo, he is considered obligated to do so, even if he does not want to. Otherwise he is considered a prick.

But then the general consensus is that if these same footballers (even the ones who will stop and take photos and sign autograph for kids all afternoon) fall into financial difficulties because of some sort of mental weakness (be it gambling, addiction, whatever) then screw them, they had money, they wasted it, their own fault. No sympathy.

There is a serious stench of a perceived public ownership of 'public figures', even sportspeople, that almost gives off the same sort of vibes as the Britney Spears episode of South Park.

blinding

One wonders if some of these guys are going bankrupt in one jurisdiction with maybe assets in another.

Not all perhaps but I would say that some of them may be using bankruptcy to protect themselves in one jurisdiction .

How much investigating is done to insure that they do not have assets elsewhere ?

COYVB

ToxicPaddy wrote: »

Its not difficult to spot the ones that will be broke within 5 years of ending their career. Driving £100k sports cars, living in ridiculously huge houses with the usual perma tanned bimbo on their arm

There's no reason they can't comfortably afford all that, paid up front, in cash

Blatter

rarnes1 wrote: »

It's estimated David James earned £25m in his career.

Now bankrupt.

He doesn't come across as the brightest fella on the TV.

I think he had a divorce that cost him a fair chunk too.

klose

Didnt valdes lose most of his money after some investment went tits up on him?

Sir Gallagher

You just know that Balotelli is gonna be one of these guys and deservedly so.

aidan24326

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

There are enough examples of players losing all their money to act as a warning for any pro sportsmen today to save their money and not spend it foolishly, and really it's hard to feel any sympathy for players who blow their fortune when even a tiny bit of sense would have them set for life.

I have to agree with this. It's like a guy who starts doing heroin, we've all seen so many examples at this stage of how that drug destroys people'e lives that there's plenty of forewarning. Same goes for top-level pro sportsmen. The pitfalls are obvious and the amount of examples of guys blowing their money are so numerous that you'd think young players now would have at least a little bit of appreciation of a)how fortunate they are and b)how it can all go to sh1t if you're not careful. With even a modicum of sense a premier league footballer nowadays should be retiring from the game in a very comfortable position financially.

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

You just know that Balotelli is gonna be one of these guys and deservedly so.

I'm no great fan of Balotelli but that's just a cheap shot.

Sir Gallagher

aidan24326 wrote: »

I have to agree with this. It's like a guy who starts doing heroin, we've all seen so many examples at this stage of how that drug destroys people'e lives that there's plenty of forewarning. Same goes for top-level pro sportsmen. The pitfalls are obvious and the amount of examples of guys blowing their money are so numerous that you'd think young players now would have at least a little bit of appreciation of a)how fortunate they are and b)how it can all go to sh1t if you're not careful. With even a modicum of sense a premier league footballer nowadays should be retiring from the game in a very comfortable position financially.



I'm no great fan of Balotelli but that's just a cheap shot.

Yeah maybe it is but he does fck all and gets paid a fortune for it. Cant even make the bench for a liverpool side with poxy strikers, he's a wrong'un.

gosplan

gosplan wrote: »

I'm guessing it has something to do with never actually having to consider finances till you're about 40 and maybe not having the most solid background where planning for the long term future is a standard practice.

I mean why would you say a disproportionate amount of sports people end up this way? Are they all greedy?

Bad advice certainly must be a huge factor. Or not listening to advice.

David James for one lost a fortune in a divorce, and then trying to find tax loopholes. Should he have signed a pre nup for example? Trying to get around the taxman should send alarm bells ringing in even the least educated.

Keith Gillespie blew his on gambling. Can't really blame anyone but himself there.

Gazza drank his.

Brad Friedel bought a 30 acre Soccer academy. All eggs in one basket.

Djemba Djemba blew his on cars and gave away money to friends etc


Only ones I can think off.


They spend like the lads during the Celtic Tiger (middle and upper class these chaps were which debunks that other posters point). Money then dries up and they are in trouble.


As I said earlier I'd be fairly
shocked if clubs didn't offer financial advice to players. You can't force them to use the advice

DerekDGoldfish

rarnes1 wrote: »

Bad advice certainly must be a huge factor. Or not listening to advice.

David James for one lost a fortune in a divorce, and then trying to find tax loopholes. Should he have signed a pre nup for example? Trying to get around the taxman should send alarm bells ringing in even the least educated.

Keith Gillespie blew his on gambling. Can't really blame anyone but himself there.

Gazza drank his.

Brad Friedel bought a 30 acre Soccer academy. All eggs in one basket.

Djemba Djemba blew his on cars and gave away money to friends etc


Only ones I can think off.


They spend like the lads during the Celtic Tiger (middle and upper class these chaps were which debunks that other posters point). Money then dries up and they are in trouble.


As I said earlier I'd be fairly
shocked if clubs didn't offer financial advice to players. You can't force them to use the advice

The FA's in the various countries could put a clause into the standard contract that a certain percentage say 15% of their wage is put into a fund they cant touch till they retire. Although that wouldn't stop them burning through that fund in two or three years after they retire.

DerekDGoldfish

DerekDGoldfish wrote: »

The FA's in the various countries could put a clause into the standard contract that a certain percentage say 15% of their wage is put into a fund they cant touch till they retire. Although that wouldn't stop them burning through that fund in two or three years after they retire.

Where's the PFA in all this?

Surely they should be involved in advising players

Kirby

DerekDGoldfish wrote: »

The FA's in the various countries could put a clause into the standard contract that a certain percentage say 15% of their wage is put into a fund they cant touch till they retire. Although that wouldn't stop them burning through that fund in two or three years after they retire.

Personal responsibility. You take ownership of your actions, good and bad.

It's not somebody elses job to stop you acting like a tit, even if you are a footballer.

Richard Hillman

Sometimes the simplest options are the best. Some of them are just better off earning their cash, paying their PAYE and let the money accumulate in their accounts. Or at least put whatever is left over at the end of the month in your average savings account.

DerekDGoldfish

DerekDGoldfish wrote: »

The FA's in the various countries could put a clause into the standard contract that a certain percentage say 15% of their wage is put into a fund they cant touch till they retire. Although that wouldn't stop them burning through that fund in two or three years after they retire.

That would seem like an unwarranted interference with someone's salary. Plus, how would that work if someone needed access to a lump sum urgently, say for example they had a sick child that needed an expensive operation. The FA can't hold their piggybanks.

aidan24326

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Yeah maybe it is but he does fck all and gets paid a fortune for it. Cant even make the bench for a liverpool side with poxy strikers, he's a wrong'un.

I agree that he's rather fortunate to be earning so much money considering his iffy performances and questionable attitude, doesn't necessarily mean he's stupid with his money though. I honestly don't know.

And as others have said I'm pretty sure footballers do have access to financial advice, depends whether they heed it or not though. Ultimately if a guy blows his money that's his own doing though. You don't have to be a genius to realise that it might be prudent to put a bit of that vast salary away for later since you have a relatively short career. A player on 40K per week could save half his salary and still live a very comfortable life, so greed and extravagance must play a part too.

kippy

I'm not that surprised being honest.

I read Keith Gillespies book a few months ago. I thought it was a great read and showed the type of pitfalls that can befall a person who is earning that kind of money, with a lot of free time and with very poor advise around him.
While Gillespie had his own demons (Gambling) he also had some major issues with various investments that turned out to be badly setup and managed. It appears a number of footballers invested at the time and got hammered for big tax bills based on them years later.
You really need to have your head screwed on or have the right advise to make the most of those earnings. After all your lifestyle generally expands to take account of those earnings. Bad investments and advise will make serious dents in them.

inforfun

DerekDGoldfish wrote: »

The FA's in the various countries could put a clause into the standard contract that a certain percentage say 15% of their wage is put into a fund they cant touch till they retire. Although that wouldn't stop them burning through that fund in two or three years after they retire.

Dutch players association CFK has been doing this for ages already.
mandatory for Dutch players playing in the Dutch league, foreigners can opt out.
It will be paid out just like a normal pension. Not sure at what age payments start though, doubt that it is 65 (info in the link if you are interested)

Beasty

DerekDGoldfish wrote: »

The FA's in the various countries could put a clause into the standard contract that a certain percentage say 15% of their wage is put into a fund they cant touch till they retire. Although that wouldn't stop them burning through that fund in two or three years after they retire.

You mean like a pension fund? That's likely to be in place anyway (certainly within the UK, although there are now severe limitations on what can benefit from tax breaks within a UK pension fund). The problem for footballers though is they have a career of maybe 10 years. For some it obviously can be longer, for others it can be shorter. Accumulating 15% over a 10 year period will fund 1 and a half years of a similar lifestyle after they hang up their boots. They will often have another 30-35 years before they can even draw the state pension

The best investment they can make is learning a trade, be it within football, either coaching, perhaps in the media, on the after-dinner circuit, or elsewhere. In the old days (when there was a lot less money about) they would perhaps invest their testimonial money in a pub and run that as a business until they fully retired. Nowadays that would probably be seen as too much of a come-down for former high profile players. Maybe they do need to lower their expectations though as there are a limited number who will continue to make much money out of the game once they stop playing

LuckyLloyd

All NFL players that are drafted get invited to a rookie seminar in which they have to attend various seminars on money management, etc and receive presentations from recently retired players who are broke. The message:

- you won't ever make this paycheck outside the league;
- lots of people are going to approach you peddling scams and bad investments to drain your money;
- women are expensive;

Of course, in the NFL players have had to get through three years in third level education first with very strict rules regarding remuneration so they should have a better chance at avoiding financial ruin in theory.

So I do have some empathy rather than sympathy. You're 17 and get your first pro contract and are already making multiples of what your parents ever managed. You light it up for a couple of seasons and you get your first huge payday at ~20 on a five year deal. You stay fit, keep playing and get another big payday ~3 years later and another ~3 years later. 26 years old, in the prime of life and feeling invincible. Of course, the advice at that point should be that you only have around one or two more big paydays unless you really start taking care of yourself. That your career has something like ~6 - 10 years to run and it might be time to start thinking about life after football. But athletes won't think like that. And when they are in a club surrounded by people talking about them as the best footballer of all time and beautiful women trying to drape themselves over them it's easy to see why.

Of course, our hypothetical player can suffer a catastrophic ligament tear their next game and never fully recover. Suddenly they're 29 years old and have barely played over the past couple of seasons. They no longer feel invincible. Their knee is sore the whole time and they don't have the old speed or pop they used to rely on. Their club sees their contract as a huge liability and are desperate to offload them without paying it to the end. There's still huge money coming in but it's going to end very soon and the outgoings are just as huge and the hangers on are still there with the hands out and their celebrity wife doesn't seem to be particularly supportive or understanding...

The PFA has the responsibility here just like the NFLPA has tried to do the right thing and offer advice and services to players. Every player who gets a pro contract should be sent on a mandatory money management course; and a refresher should be triggered everytime a new contract is filed with a club. Even that will only cut down on these stories, they'll never be fully eliminated.

Some athletes have no sense of their own mortality and are doomed to die young and broke. That's life.

zAbbo

Paul Merson, earning good money his whole career and ended up with nothing - moving back into the council house his parents lived in.

What a shithouse - not even buying his folks a nice place when the good times rolled.

efb

Led by the nose as asses are.

razorblunt

It's worth saying that these players are surrounded by vultures, for every Robbie Fowler or Frank Lampard (snr) who get involved with property there are those that get their fingers burned - Riise's hotel chain collaps, Gillespie's failed venture. It looks like what's happening is they want to get as rich as possible, as quick as possible taking high risk ventures with either poor guidance, poor research or greed or perhaps a mix of all those. I guess the normal way of making your money work for you doesn't excite them.

I think the PFA need to help the transition more to life after football, they all seem to gear towards coaching, becoming an agent, sports management or punditry/media work, they can't all get jobs on tv.

Some players do seem to be taken care of though, didn't Rio explain that 90% of his wages are invested for post retirement and managed by some advisors?

zAbbo

zAbbo wrote: »

Paul Merson, earning good money his whole career and ended up with nothing - moving back into the council house his parents lived in.

What a shithouse - not even buying his folks a nice place when the good times rolled.

Compulsive Gambling was his big problem I think.

Doesn't matter what you earn when you're hooked on gambling, you'll gamble it all away.

I'd say Gambling is a big factor in a lot of these stories tbh.

Deise Vu

Up to a few years ago all the top players had a large percentage of their earnings paid to a company for 'image' rights and drew the rest as a salary for playing. These companies would typically be incorporated in a tax haven run by trust companies. The theory was that money would accumulate tax free and the player could access it at retirement (after presumably going offshore himself also). HM Customs and Excise took umbrage and had these shelters demolished leaving players exposed to massive tax liabilities (interest and penalties would be savage).

I don't blame players for falling for this and other tax schemes. It is a bit much to expect a guy who is exceptionally blessed with footballing talent to have a grasp of complex tax issues too. The difficulty is not that they are not taking advice, it is that they do not know what is good advice and what is diabolical advice.

Keane and Quinn have always used Michael Kennedy, a solicitor, as their agent. There will be no fear of either going broke anytime soon.

Blatter

It's been years since I read his first book but I remember Roy Keane saying that he lost an awful lot of his earnings. He had some guy in charge of his finances and he fcked up. I don't think Keane slated him though, iirc he was kind of sympathetic towards him which I found strange! Would need to read it again though.