Liverpool icon John Barnes reveals the sequence of events that led to his bankruptcy
Liverpool legend John Barnes reveals how he went bankrupt (Image: The Overlap)
John Burns talked about the series of events leading up to his filing for bankruptcy in September 2025. Former Liverpool and England winger John Barnes has been given a petition to the Commissioner of Revenue and Customs after racking up debts of more than £1.5 million.
Burns, 62, was declared bankrupt in 2009, although he described the ordeal as a “tax oversight”. But he spoke at length about this latest financial ordeal, saying it was a direct result of money being mismanaged during his playing days.
“So I got involved in a big coffee[investment]in Brazil,” he said on the latest episode of Overlap. “There’s a lot of investment going on around the world.”
Gary Neville asked if the Kop icon had any advisers at the time, to which Barnes replied: “No, my agent was just a football agent. They’re other people who come in to say, ‘Okay, how about this? How about this plan?'”
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“And then, of course, the Florida villa[referring to the scheme that cost many football players millions of dollars on investments in Kingsbridge]as well. But I wasn’t going to go down the path they were in[trying to get their money back].
read more: Liverpool and England legend John Barnes’ company declares bankrupt with £1.5m debtread more: Five-time Premier League champion Manchester United star has spent all his money and been declared bankrupt.
“But I lost a lot of money and by the time I quit football and had this huge tax bill, I was playing catch-up for a number of years, from 2017 until last year, until I finally paid back around £2m.
“But the taxman wanted last year’s money after I had cashed in everything I had to pay! And what I really should have done was to go bankrupt from 2017. To be honest, I could have done anything with £2m. But what I didn’t want to do was be seen as not paying it.”
“So of course people would think, ‘He doesn’t pay taxes, he doesn’t pay taxes.’ But starting in 2017, I paid everything I had and cashed out everything, whatever the house was. So all I have is the house. Everything I can physically do.”
The Jamaican-born icon went on to say he felt like his head was above water when tax collectors came after him with “so much aggression” on his bills. As a result, he had to go bankrupt again.
Barnes was part of Liverpool’s iconic generation but fell into financial difficulties (Image: Getty Images)
“Because I see people going bankrupt and still owning houses and cars and things like that. And I don’t have that,” he continued. “I still have the house and the car, but I’ve cashed it all out so I don’t invest it anywhere because I really want people to know…I see how hard it is for people all over the world.”
“You know, people can’t pay their utility bills and stuff like that. And I don’t pay taxes right now because I have the money. So that’s the only reason I did it. But that’s life.”
Arsenal icon Ian Wright further asked about the advice (or lack thereof) Barnes may have received regarding investments. Burns then detailed how things have changed for football players since he was at his peak.
“Don’t forget, when we were playing, they were like ‘bros who know someone,'” he added. “It wasn’t really that organized…and the club itself put you in touch with people who looked after you.
Mr Burns explained how “overly aggressive” action from HMRC had put him back in a bad financial position (Image: Getty Images)
“I remember back then, even when I first hired an agent, they were like, ‘Agent? We don’t need an agent.’ How the club was… I’m not saying they were mistreating the players, but I remember once they said, ‘Look, the contract is there, go sign it. Please go and sign it. ”
Fellow pundit Jill Scott shared her two cents that there are still likely players who are receiving bad advice from those around them. Above all, Roy Keene recommended “an excellent accountant” to participate.
Burns continues to work as a critic and is a popular guest speaker. The two-time FA Cup and league title winner has not held a managerial job since 2009, although he had brief spells as manager of Celtic, Jamaica and most recently Tranmere Rovers.
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