Mr Finnan, who won the Champions League<\/a> with Liverpool<\/a>, ended up embroiled in almost a decade of legal strife after getting involved in a disastrous property business with his brother, Sean.<\/p>\n After he became concerned about the way the business was being run around 2016, he sued Sean, before eventually securing a \u00a34m settlement at the High Court<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n But the footballer did not get his money, instead having his brother made bankrupt in July 2019, before getting involved in a series of court fights with his solicitors.<\/p>\n One such case \u2013 an attempt to have a Charles Russell Speechlys lawyer jailed for contempt of court during a failed \u00a36m negligence claim against the firm \u2013 ended in him facing a five-figure costs bill.<\/p>\n However, the Irish former fullback has not paid his debt and is now facing a petition to make him bankrupt at Central London County Court.<\/p>\n He became embroiled in further litigation with the solicitors who took over his case, Candey Ltd, after disputing their bills for taking it on, losing that dispute too.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Steve Finnan enjoyed a successful football career, winning the Champions League with Liverpool (Getty)<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the case went to the High Court<\/a>, where he tried to appeal earlier orders in the bankruptcy<\/a> case, but was told by a judge that he was only \u201cdelaying\u201d things with a \u201chopeless\u201d appeal.<\/p>\n \u201cI form the strong view that this appeal simply amounts to an attempt on his part to delay the final hearing of this petition for as long as possible,\u201d said Mr Justice Mellor.<\/p>\n Limerick-born Mr Finnan, 49, enjoyed a stellar Premier League career with Fulham, Liverpool<\/a> and Portsmouth, winning Champions League<\/a> and FA Cup medals, as well as playing more than 50 times for his country.<\/p>\n The bankruptcy petition was ultimately transferred to Central London County Court, where District Judge Carla Revere, in June made a series of directions and orders relating to the case.<\/p>\n However, Mr Finnan lodged an appeal against part of the order which recorded the transfer of the case to the county court, with the result that the September date for the final hearing in the bankruptcy case had to be cancelled.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Finnan controls the ball in a 2008 match against Fulham (David Ashdown)<\/p>\n Representing himself, he argued that the case is too \u201ccomplex\u201d to be decided by the county court and should instead be elevated to a High Court judge, given the amounts of money involved in the background.<\/p>\n He also claimed \u201capparent bias\u201d against him by District Judge Revere and questioned whether she had the power to make orders which she did.<\/p>\n But rejecting his appeal, Mr Justice Mellor said the bankruptcy petition itself did not involve the millions of pounds which feature elsewhere in his disputes \u2013 but instead a costs order of under \u00a350,000.<\/p>\n \u201cStanding back, it is surprising that Mr Finnan has challenged this directions order… his complaints are largely procedural and have no substance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI refuse permission to appeal and I dismiss the appeal. I also certify this appeal is totally without merit. It was, at all times, completely hopeless.<\/p>\n \u201cThe petition will have to be the subject of further directions. I think they\u2019re best given by a judge in the insolvency list.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is highly likely that any such further order for directions will repeat the directions in District Judge Revere\u2019s order.\u201d<\/p>\n No date was set for the bankruptcy case to return to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-146513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/627-1fpms9p.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Finnan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/24784.jpg\")
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