Sam Allardyce sacked: Wheeler-dealer England boss on £3m salary brought down by non-stop pursuit of cash
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GREEDY Sam Allardyce’s relentless pursuit of money finally proved his undoing last night.
The ex-England boss was due to be paid £3million a year to get the Three Lions to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
But that was not enough for Allardyce, 61, who continued to maintain a host of lucrative investments and company directorships he had built up during his years in football management.
Records show he is currently a member of four film production schemes used by investors to gain tax relief — including three whose creators were jailed for nine years each in June.
He is also a member of a multi-million pound property scheme which has been investigated by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and a director of a company buying and selling real estate.
Allardyce has held investments or directorships in 19 different companies over the 22 years he has been a football manager.
His tax affairs have twice been investigated but yesterday it emerged how he boasted only a “s**t accountant” would pay HMRC’s demands.
Speaking to undercover reporters, he described the HMRC as the “most corrupt business” in Britain, adding: “They fly out tax demands without any real knowledge whether they should or shouldn’t.
“They just put ’em out willy-nilly and if you pay them, people s**t themselves and pay them.”
Last night football experts warned the next England chief needs to drop all his outside business interests.
THE SUN SAYS
THE greed of Sam Allardyce boggles the mind.
Here was a man facing the greatest challenge and privilege of his long career — managing England for £3million a year plus bonuses.
His every waking thought ought to have been on how to transform a team of perpetual losers.
Instead, before he had presided over even his first game, his focus was on using his new status to grub around for even more dosh.
Greed alone isn’t usually a sacking offence.
But an England manager cannot survive if he suggests to strangers that he will flout the rules of his FA employers for money.
The Telegraph’s reporters have done the country a service in exposing him.
Our national team has suffered many embarrassments, not least the Iceland shocker at the Euros.
But to hire and fire this wide-boy in just 67 days has made us an even bigger global laughing stock.
Ex-England and Chelsea midfielder John Hollins, who managed teams for more than 30 years, said: “You’ve got to be squeaky clean to be the manager of your country, especially as England boss.
“Sam’s been protected as a Premier League manager by his club all these years but now he’s open to all these people.
“I never took a bung in my life as a manager and I don’t see the need for it. It should be all about what happens on the pitch.”
And the FA’s former communications director Julian Eccles said: “We cannot have such a senior figure in our game being so disrespectful of such important rules and also having his head turned by the prospect of earning extra money by an outside commercial organisation.”
READ MORE
- Sam Allardyce QUITS as England manager after just 67 days in charge
- Alan Shearer: Allardyce had catastrophic misdudgement, it always comes down to money and greed
- Two agents claim eight current or former Prem managers are open to 'bungs'
- One win, 67 days, no pay-off - the highs and lows of Allardyce's reign
- Ray Parlour says Allardyce saga has turned England into a laughing stock
- "I'm so sorry" - Allardyce's grovelling apology after leaving post
- Who is Gareth Southgate? The man who will take over the Three Lions
- Neil Ashton comment: Allardyce was arrogant, naive and stupid
- £3million salary not enough for wheeler-dealer brought down by pursuit of cash
- All the funniest and best reaction after Allardyce steps down
Allardyce, who has lived in his £500,000 semi-detached home near Bolton, Lancs, for more than 30 years, is believed to be worth around £10million.
He currently has an active role in nine firms which include two directorships holding almost £1million in cash.
He runs Sam Allardyce Investments which holds £431,630 in shareholder funds.
His wife Lynne is sole director of Sam Allardyce Limited which has £329,446 in shareholder cash.
Records show his real estate firm SMH Investments, based at an office unit he owns near his home, has £667,236 in assets of which £337,179 is shareholder cash.
Records for his other investments cannot be detailed but collectively they total in the hundreds of millions, which includes assets and capital from other investors.
Allardyce was named in connection with an HMRC investigation in 2013 over a £450million scam involving a firm called Waverton Property he had invested in.
The company had been set up to convert a Birmingham warehouse into a data centre using tax breaks on renovating old commercial buildings which had been introduced by the last Labour government.
Investors included Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, West Ham chairman David Gold, golf star Rory McIlroy and Man United’s Wayne Rooney.
He is also an investor in three film production schemes by Little Wing Films.
Little Wing saw its four creators jailed for a total of 27 years in June.
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They had falsely claimed to have invested £275million in film projects and used offshore accounts to cover their tracks and increase their supposed losses.
More than 275 investors including celebrities and sportsmen contributed over £76million to the scheme in the belief they were helping the British film industry.
Keith Hayley, Robert Bevan and Charles Savill were each sentenced to nine years in jail at Birmingham crown court while Norman Leighton received a two-year suspended sentence.
The schemes, named the Film Development Partnership, D III LLP and D IV LLP, are still active and show Allardyce as a member in Companies House records.
Allardyce is also an investor in property investment schemes with £32million in assets with others including boxer Joe Calzaghe, footballer Ashley Cole, politician Lord Owen and golfer Graeme McDowell.
However, there is no suggestion of any impropriety in regard to these.
He was also a director of a number of firms along with his financial adviser Shane Moloney — also present at his meeting with undercover reporters — which have since been dissolved.
But he has been hit by a series of allegations of impropriety over the years, including a 2006 BBC
Panorama investigation into him being paid transfer bungs by agents.
Two years ago he was embroiled in a row as West Ham boss when he was forced to deny he had pressured starlet Ravel Morrison to sign with his agent Mark Curtis.
Yesterday, he sped away from home in his £47,000 Mercedes CLS.
Over the years he has been spotted sunning himself in Marbella and Mauritius and his £1.5million villa on the Costa Blanca which was funded by the £4million pay-off following his firing by Newcastle in 2008.
He has said it took two years to build “Big Sam’s Villa”, which he described as a “refuge from the madness of football”.
Last night a Premier League insider said: “Sam has worked hard in football and has not always got the respect he deserves.
“So he enjoys earning a good living and living the good life.
“He is not afraid to take opportunities to earn more money.”