Insolvency Service investigations began after the footballer’s John Barnes Media Limited company went into liquidation in April 2023 after an HMRC winding up petition.

Investigators revealed that between 2018 and 2020, the 60-year-old’s company failed to pay more than £190,000 in corporation tax and VAT, with HMRC its only known creditor when it ceased trading.

Barnes, whose business was based in Byfleet in Surrey, has been banned from acting as a director for three and a half years.

The former footballer earned 79 England caps during a professional playing career spanning almost two decades, and formed John Barnes Media Limited in September 2012 to handle his media work.

Between November 2018 and October 2020, the company’s turnover was £441,798.

Nothing was paid to HMRC in tax during that period, despite the company filing returns showing what the VAT payments should have been.

The Insolvency Service’s investigation showed that John Barnes Media failed to pay £78,839 in corporation tax between August 2018 and January 2020, when the company ceased trading. The company also failed to pay £115,272 in VAT between February 2019 and 2020.

Mike Smith, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘John Barnes had a legal duty to ensure his company paid the correct amount of corporation tax and VAT. Instead, it paid no tax whatsoever between November 2018 and October 2020, despite receiving earnings of well over £400,000.

‘This disqualification should serve as a deterrent to other directors that if you do not pay your taxes while directing money elsewhere, you are at risk of being banned.’

Insolvency Service investigations into Barnes’ conduct as a director began in September 2023.