Craig Bellamy has warned footballers not to make the same mistake he did after being declared bankrupt last month, owing almost £1.4m in taxes to HMRC.
The longstanding Wales international footballer has played for Liverpool, Norwich City, Newcastle United, Manchester City and Cardiff City during his career. Currently he is with Burnley as assistant manager.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said: "I want this to be a warning to other players. Check everything, make sure the people advising you are regulated. If they are not regulated, it's the Wild West. Get your stuff audited by independent people, the equivalent of getting a second opinion. I was brought up in a generation of footballers where everything was done for you. Every bill. Wherever I was, the club did everything for me. I think that's wrong."
Bellamy also said: "I have been living the last five or six years on Death Row,' says Bellamy, ‘just waiting for someone to put me out. I have been waiting for the cell door to open and someone to say: "Today's the day". It's like the feeling of not being able to look forward to anything. All the money I've earned, I can't get a mortgage. Financially, I have no future. The hurt of that. I can't own anything. Everything's gone.
"My life has been on hold. I'm not a tax dodger but I have been very naive and the HMRC have been pursuing me for unpaid tax for some time. Everything I have had has been taken from me. If you get the wrong people advising you, it all haemorrhages, it all dwindles. It has got to the point where bankruptcy is a relief. It means I can just live again.
"I know some people will probably think I have squandered all my money on drinking or gambling or drugs. I haven't. I can go quiet where you won't hear from me but I won't be down the pub. I have never touched drugs since I was a young kid. I don't gamble. I have never gambled. It doesn't make any sense to me. But I have gambled on people unfortunately."
