How NOT to be a Football Millionaire - Keith Gillespie My Autobiography by Keith Gillespie

Author:Keith Gillespie [Gillespie, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Soccer, Football, Non-Fiction, Horse Racing, Sheffield United FC, Northern Ireland, Blackburn Rovers FC, ManchesterUnited FC, Leicester City FC, Newcastle United FC, Gambling, Bradford City FC, Biography & Autobiography
Publisher: Trinity Mirror Sport Media
Published: 2013-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

17

Cashing In

I’M sitting in a room, surrounded by footballers, listening to a presentation that I don’t quite understand.

We’re in London, some time in 2001. A Scottish agent is addressing a group that includes internationals and Premier League stars.

The purpose of the gathering is a business proposal, and there’s a lot of talk about investment schemes and loans and tax and details that I’m not really taking in. But my ears prick up when he tells us something that I do want to hear, the details of a plan that will give us a lot of money in a short space of time. And I like the sound of that.

I’d made the journey from Blackburn with Darren Peacock, who seemed more clued up on the whole thing. Tony Grew, a well known figure within football, knew about the idea.

Tony worked in association with the PFA on pensions and other matters, and he was my financial advisor at that time.

While I was reckless with my gambling, I wasn’t totally ridiculous when I was earning the big bucks at Blackburn. Tony sat me down and convinced me to invest a portion of my monthly take-home in bonds and a few other things. Good advice. In fact, he tried hard to increase my contributions so it would limit my betting but, considering I was betting on credit, there wasn’t much he could do to totally curb my behaviour.

Tony had become aware of a scheme that was growing popular in football circles. Essentially, it was buying into film syndicates. These syndicates provided the capital for production companies to make movies and TV series – although there were layers of legal people and financial institutions that acted as the conduit between A and B, all of which were charging major commission for their input.

That was about as much as I knew, but Darren and his wife, Simone, had done some research and seemed to think it could be lucrative. The purpose of the trip was to learn about the finer points. Phil was invited too, but he seemed to think there was nothing in it for him because he wasn’t generating enough income to get involved.

And that was the kicker, here. I gathered that the people who were behind the financing of these film syndicates wanted footballers because we raked in high income. And, in return for committing to the scheme, we could immediately get some cash back – in the form of tax relief.

So, this is what led me to the meeting. The agent wasn’t running the project, but he understood it. There was a Scottish company behind it, a legal firm called Scotts. Some of what was said registered. Essentially, the fact we commanded a huge salary meant we could be returned tax by creating trading losses in film investments. With my permission, a loan would be registered in my name from Sovereign Finance (a subsidiary of Alliance & Leicester – now Santander Bank UK). I’d never see the money, but it would appear in my personal accounts.

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