It was not simply the £10m that he lost through a bad financial advisor that brought Sven-Goran Eriksson to rare rage. It was also his shock that somebody should treat a fellow human being so disrespectfully. News yesterday that Eriksson passed away with debts of £8.64m provides a stark warning that even a lucrative football career can be damaged by poor choice of money mentor.
Eriksson was big on principles. He trusted people, even if that may seem odd when reflecting briefly on some of the mobility in his private life when he was managing England. But that was Sven with his financial affairs: trusting to the point of naivety.
So were many others in football or simply dazzled by potential profits dangled in front of them. Hundreds of football people, managers and particularly players, are currently counting the huge cost of becoming involved in a failed film tax relief scheme. HMRC has been knocking at their doors. Sometimes if a deal seems too good to be true…it is too good to be true. Sometimes the advice of advisors needs to be scrutinised closer. Your money, your loss. The public’s well of sympathy will not be deep, especially when considering the potential loss to the Exchequer of tax not being paid or through bankruptcy. But I know players who have had to declare themselves bankrupt and it was devastating to them, especially to their pride. Some never had the right people around them.
The League Managers Association and Professional Footballers’ Association give good advice, warning their members of the importance of appointing the right advisors (and they themselves off such services). The Eriksson case will surely be used as a salutary story.
Reports in Sweden add that £7.25m of Eriksson’s debt was owed to HMRC. He had assets of £4.8m, meaning his beloved lakeside home in Sunne, Sweden, where his father has been living, will doubtless have to be sold. Eriksson, who died from pancreatic cancer in August aged 76, wanted to leave money to his partner Yaniseth to help with her son’s university fees.
How did it come to this? England’s manager between 2001 and 2006 made 10s of millions of pounds in his 40-year managerial career. After making his name in Sweden, he managed Benfica twice, Roma, Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Lazio, where he will have been handsomely remunerated. After England and Manchester City, it was off to Mexico, Notts County, the Ivory Coast, Leicester City, then clubs in Thailand, Dubai and China and finally the Philippines national team. Decent gigs, financially. Eriksson worked because he loved football but his choice of job often highlighted his need for money.
He should never have got into this financial mess. With England alone, his first contract had an agreed salary of £1.85m net in the first season, £2m the following two seasons and then £2.25m. The bonus for qualifying for the 2002 World Cup was £300,000 and £100,000 for reaching the quarter-finals. (Eriksson would have received £1m for winning it).