sport news The devastating scandal that united title winners, established internationals, ... trends now
The footballers were keen to remain peripheral to the events of the day. For once, it was not all about them.
It was primarily about those they had come to walk alongside, other victims of fraud and financial misconduct, and campaigners demanding urgent changes to the law before more slide into a spiral of depression.
Nurses, soldiers, postal workers, IT contractors. Public sector workers and the self-employed. Savers from all professions. All of them exhausted by the turmoil. Out of ideas on where to turn next. Led around in circles by different authorities in a Kafkaesque nightmare.
The footballers picked up the placards calling for a statutory public inquiry into financial scandals, the role of HMRC, issuing huge tax demands and years of interest on money in many cases never earned, and police indifference towards it all.
They took their turns carrying a coffin to symbolise those lives lost to suicide and joined the chants for justice as the protest made its way through London’s streets from the Law Courts to the Treasury, HM Revenues Customs, New Scotland Yard and Westminster.
People from all works of life took to the streets in protest, calling for a statutory public inquiry into financial scandals
They took their turns carrying a coffin to symbolise those lives lost to suicide and joined the chants for justice
Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy was among the ex-footballers present at the protest
Mingled and chatted with others, victims of the Equitable Life Scandal, the Woodford Scandal and the Loan Charge Scandal, among others.
This was Wednesday, the day when Manchester City and Arsenal would crash out of the Champions League and these were footballers famous in the first decade of the Premier League, when the influx money catapulted wages into another stratosphere enabling them to make investments they hoped would provide financial security for their families when their short careers ended.
Between them, the victims marching together lost tens of millions. Some lost everything and regardless of how much you started with, that is devastating.
The footballers realise there will be little public sympathy around for them. They were handsomely paid and the perception is probably that they knew the risks and invested badly.
All of them would strongly refute this. They were not aware of what they were getting into.
There are allegations that many in football have been victims of systematic crime. Claims unscrupulous financial advisors targeted players deliberately, selling schemes they knew were unsuitable.
Some of them talk of being ‘groomed’. Those in professional sports are easy targets. Usually focused elsewhere, on a hectic schedule but conscious they should prepare for the future because the career is short.
Some of the players carry an additional sense of responsibility because as senior professionals they recommended these investment schemes run by people they trusted to younger teammates and saw them lose millions, too.
Worryingly, they suspect this sort of thing is still be rife. Many are still involved in football and see plenty of characters descend on training grounds selling all sorts from overseas property to uncut gems.
