Why Andy Cole and fellow victims of cash scandals have been forced to march in protest
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 and 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 and 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 Revenue & Customs, New Scotland Yard and Westminster.
They 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 of 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 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 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’.
Professional sportsmen are easy targets. Usually focused elsewhere, they are on a hectic schedule but conscious they should prepare for the future. Some players carry an additional sense of responsibility because as senior professionals they recommended investment schemes run by people they trusted to younger team-mates and saw them lose millions, too.
Worryingly, they suspect this sort of thing is still rife. Many are still involved in football and see characters descend on training grounds selling all sorts, from overseas property to uncut gems.
Chris Smalling is not part of this group, but earlier this month came reports the Roma defender was suing a financial advisor for fees incurred.
You would recognise the footballers on the march. Among them were established internationals and title winners, household names and familiar faces still on TV.
Andy Cole, Danny Murphy, Martin O’Neill, Colin hendry and Michael Thomas, to name just a few, were there and those present represented only a small portion of those affected. They have been fighting this battle for more than a decade.
They were keen to remain peripheral, simply part of the crowd, but keen to be present as a show of solidarity among the unheard, people aggrieved by their treatment within a system that did nothing to protect them. One that is now doing nothing to help.
On that score, out of the march emerged an idea to do something useful in the form of plans for a charity, coming soon.