Former Liverpool and Newcastle United striker, Craig Bellamy who is now Vincent Kompany’s assistant at Burney has issued a warning to footballers not to make the mistakes he did after being declared bankrupt.
The 43-year-old is currently with the Championship table-toppers, who are looking to make an immediate return to the Premier League after being relegated last season.
Bellamy currently lives a modest life in North Manchester and doesn’t own a car or an apartment. In fact, the 43-year-old still owes £1.4m in taxes to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Bellamy has claimed that the last six years of his life has been like ‘living in a death row’ after multiple failed business ventures and trusting the wrong people that has led to his current situation.
Poor advice and betrayal
The explosive striker claims that advisers misled him and friends who indulged him, have betrayed him. He had to endure a divorce settlement and also lost his family home in Sant-Y-Nyll in St Brides.
However, the Burnley assistant manager opened up in an interview with the Daily Mail, suggesting his situation could provide a warning for footballers.
Bellamy said, “I want this to be a warning to other players,’ says Bellamy. ‘Check everything, make sure the people advising you are regulated. If they are not regulated, it’s the Wild West.
Get your stuff audited by independent people, the equivalent of getting a second opinion. I was brought up in a generation of footballers where everything was done for you. Every bill. Wherever I was, the club did everything for me. I think that’s wrong.”
Pain of financial difficulties
Speaking of his ordeals, the former Manchester City player said, “I have been living the last five or six years on Death Row just waiting for someone to put me out. I have been waiting for the cell door to open and someone to say: Today’s the day. It’s like the feeling of not being able to look forward to anything. All the money I’ve earned, I can’t get a mortgage.
Financially, I have no future. The hurt of that. I can’t own anything. Everything’s gone.”
“My life has been on hold. I’m not a tax dodger but I have been very naive and the HMRC have been pursuing me for unpaid tax for some time. Everything I have had has been taken from me. If you get the wrong people advising you, it all haemorrhages, it all dwindles. It has got to the point where bankruptcy is a relief. It means I can just live again.”
Bellamy had a series of failed investments in London, Cardiff along with restaurant and bar. He continued, “I know some people will probably think I have squandered all my money on drinking or gambling or drugs.
I haven’t. I can go quiet where you won’t hear from me but I won’t be down the pub. I have never touched drugs since I was a young kid. I don’t gamble.
I have never gambled. It doesn’t make any sense to me. But I have gambled on people unfortunately.”
Photo credit: IMAGO / Sportimage
