Winning the Champions League is the most prestigious club honour in club football but ex-Liverpool star Steve Finnan’s reward for his triumph no longer belongs to him. The 2026 final takes place on Saturday between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain.
Finnan retired from football in 2010 and opted to finance a property empire to begin his post-sporting life. He ran the business through two companies he owned with his brother Sean, who managed the firm. The pair had a large home in Wimbledon Common and numerous other houses in south west London in their portfolio which devolved into a financial mess after the brothers fell out.
The ex-Liverpool defender launched a legal battle in 2023 after alleging that he missed out on £6million. He ended up blaming lawyers for his business’s failure, only for the High Court to throw out his case. The court heard that Finnan emailed solicitors in 2016, where he protested that despite ‘significant funding from the claimant by way of loans, the companies appeared to have no money’.
Finnan then told his lawyers to file ‘unfair prejudice’ petitions against his brother. Sean denied misconduct but admitted their relationship collapsed, and after a change of lawyers, the siblings eventually settled out of court.
Finnan looked set for a £4m payout after Sean agreed to transfer his shares, but the former footballer did not receive the sum and Sean was subsequently declared bankrupt in July 2019. That same year, Finnan claimed he only received £187,570 from the company’s sale and a further £89,345 from the sale of another property.
The financially stressful ordeal saw Finnan part ways with more of his prized possessions. On top of auctioning off his Champions League medal, he also sold two signed shirts from the 2005 final, a replica Champions League trophy and a lavish watch he received after the match. Finnan earned a runner-up medal after Liverpool lost the European final to AC Milan in 2007 and also auctioned it off.