Tuesday, August 12, 2025 - Former England and Liverpool footballer John Barnes is facing a new bankruptcy threat after reportedly amassing more than £1.5 million in unpaid debts. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) lodged a petition at the High Court nearly two months after it was revealed that Barnes’s media company, John Barnes Media Limited, owed almost £800,000 to the tax authority.
The 61-year-old, who won two league titles and two FA Cups
during his decade at Liverpool, was banned from serving as a company director
for three and a half years in 2024 after investigations found his firm had
failed to pay more than £78,000 in corporation tax between August 2018 and
January 2020.
Liquidators’ reports showed the company owed HMRC £776,878
in unpaid VAT, National Insurance, and PAYE, in addition to £461,849 owed to
unsecured creditors, a £226,000 director’s loan, and £56,535 in liquidators’
costs. While a “small distribution” to HMRC was anticipated, reports said there
would be “no funds” available for unsecured creditors.
Mike Smith, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service,
said: “Individuals and businesses not paying the tax they should deprives the
Government of the funding it needs to provide vital public services and
investment in areas such as schools, hospitals and roads. John Barnes had a
legal duty to ensure his company paid the correct amount of corporation tax and
VAT. Instead, it paid no tax whatsoever between November 2018 and October 2020,
despite receiving earnings of well over £400,000.”
Barnes’s media firm, set up in 2012 after his retirement
from professional football, ceased trading in January 2020. The Insolvency
Service found the company failed to pay £78,839 in corporation tax and an
additional £115,272 in VAT between February 2019 and 2020, despite filing
returns indicating what was owed.
The former winger, who earned 79 England caps, has faced
several bankruptcy petitions since 2010. He narrowly avoided going bust in 2023
after settling a personal tax bill of more than £200,000. That case, along with
another petition later that year, was dismissed after debts were repaid.
Speaking in 2009 about his finances, Barnes admitted: “I
don’t like dealing with taxes of course. I just hate not having enough money.
Apart from that, I don’t like dealing with bills and never have done. I let my
wife Andrea deal with them. I don’t even like opening them.”
Barnes, who also managed Tranmere Rovers and Jamaica, has so
far repaid £60,000 of the director’s loan and is paying the remainder in
instalments. The latest High Court petition marks yet another chapter in the
former football star’s long-running financial troubles.
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