Ex-Premier League stars including Andy Cole and Danny Murphy have written to the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer demanding end to cash demands after cops ruled them victims of fraud
16:09, 14 Dec 2025
Andy Cole speaks during the Premier League Hall of Fame 2024 Inductions event at HERE at Outernet
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Manchester United legend Andy Cole is part of the campaign(Image: Tom Dulat, Getty Images for Premier League)
Top footballers want a VAR review of millions they owe in tax penalties.
Former Premier League stars have written to the Prime Minister demanding an end to a decade-long saga that left them owing the cash despite being recognised as victims of fraud. The group, known as the V11, includes ex-Manchester United and England striker Andy Cole, former Leeds striker Brian Deane and Danny Murphy, who played for Liverpool and Fulham.
They wrote to Sir Keir Starmer to say: "We are still still facing the prospect of HMRC enforcement, despite being recognised by the police as victims. We are unable to move on or rebuild our lives.”
Danny Murphy is one of the victims
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Danny Murphy is one of the victims
The letter followed the launch of the V11 Foundation in parliament at which players told how they were manipulated into failed investments that left them owing millions in tax penalties to HMRC.
Some claim the Government’s tax operation lacks the capability or will to chase the real criminals behind such schemes. Up to 200 footballers may be involved with some losing their homes of being declared bankrupt.
Carly Barnes-Short, co-chair of the investment fraud committee, said: “It's a huge injustice. These young men were exploited by those they trusted to look after their money.”
Murphy, 48, now a pundit for the BBC and TalkSport who claims he has lost £5m alone, said: “I couldn't think of a more brilliant place than a football club to find victims.”
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He described how players would seek financial advice from team-mates or managers only to be introduced to predatory advisers. Deane, 57, said some ex-players had been pushed to the brink of suicide.
“I watched it break friends' marriages,” he said.
The footballers were introduced to finance schemes marketed as HMRC-approved or widely used across the sport. Years later HMRC retrospectively reclassified the arrangements as tax avoidance - issuing bills running into millions.
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Police concluded criminal fraud was involved in the promotion of the schemes members of the V11 entered. But HMRC has continued to pursue their tax liabilities.
It has said it has a duty to collect tax when it is legally due.