Former Liverpool and England winger John Barnes has been declared bankrupt after his media company, John Barnes Media Limited, racked up debts exceeding £1.5 million.
The bankruptcy notice, issued by the High Court of Justice on September 23, was published in the London Gazette on Tuesday, September 30. The petition was filed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in early August.
According to The Mirror, liquidators’ reports reveal that HMRC is owed £776,878 in unpaid VAT, National Insurance, and PAYE. In addition, £461,849 is owed to unsecured creditors, alongside a £226,000 director’s loan.
Barnes, capped 79 times for England, has faced repeated financial troubles. Since 2010, he has been the subject of multiple bankruptcy petitions, including one in 2023 over a £238,000 personal tax bill which was settled at the last moment.
In 2023, the former footballer was banned from serving as a company director for three-and-a-half years after an Insolvency Service investigation found his company failed to pay more than £190,000 in corporation tax and VAT between 2018 and 2020, despite generating a turnover of £441,798.
Mike Smith, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Barnes’s case should serve as a warning: “His failure to ensure taxes were paid should serve as a deterrent to other directors.”
The bankruptcy comes just weeks after Barnes spoke publicly about his long-standing tax struggles. Speaking on the All Things Business podcast, he revealed that since 2017 he has repaid around £2.2m and continues to pay £10,000 each month to HMRC under agreed arrangements.
Barnes, who became the first £10,000-a-week footballer during his playing career, said he lost between £1m and £1.5m after poor financial advice and failed investments. He stressed that, despite negative press reports, he has already sold his assets and remains committed to paying his debts:
“It would be easy to be made bankrupt because they can’t take anything else from me. But I want people to know I am paying what I owe.”
