IN THE MONEY: UKAD spend £40K on Prince Andrew’s spin doctor

British drug fighters UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) hired a public relations firm set up by Prince Andrew’s spin doctor in a dramatic bid to improve their damaged reputation in the wake of an investigation by the Mail on Sunday.

The guru, Mark Gallagher, nicknamed “the backroom fixer,” was hired in 2020 in an effort to restore the Prince’s position after the Jeffrey Epstein scandal left King Charles’s brother’s reputation in tatters.

The Mail on Sunday has discovered that UKAD paid Gallagher’s company, Pagefield, £43,208 of UK taxpayers’ money after it exposed UKAD for allowing British Cycling to conduct their own internal drug tests ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London.

A subsequent World Anti-Doping Agency investigation found that UKAD’s actions were ‘contrary’ to the WADA Code, the rules governing how national anti-doping agencies should operate.

UKAD was formally reprimanded by WADA for telling British Cycling about an anomalous finding in a rider’s urine sample – then allowed British Cyling to investigate on its own as London 2012 loomed. British Cycling could not find an innocent explanation for the trace of the banned steroid nandrolone, but did not tell UKAD and never asked UKAD for an explanation.

With the money they had spent on Pagefield, essentially trying to repair their own reputation, UKAD could instead have hired two full-time intelligence officers to help track down leads and expose drug hoaxes in Britain’s elite sport.

When asked why they had spent so much money on an outside PR man after the MoS exposed UKAD’s shortcomings, a spokesman said: ‘UKAD is a government agency and we have a responsibility to our public to act in an effective and balanced way. to communicate.

“At the time of this hire, the communications team was balancing several ongoing campaigns alongside their press service responsibilities, so a media consultant was brought in at short notice to support the team with their workload.”

Barnes’ company goes bankrupt

Football legend John Barnes has failed to settle a £300,000 tax bill with HMRC, which has left his media company bankrupt.

Liquidators were appointed to the 59-year-old former Liverpool and England star company last week. John Barnes Media’s liquidation follows a Supreme Court order to liquidate the company over its unpaid debt.

Barnes has failed to pay off the debt since the order was placed in March and could also face bankruptcy as a result.

It is the seventh time that Barnes has been the subject of an HMRC bankruptcy filing. He founded the company in 2012 to arrange the payment of his agency work.

Play-off final winners guaranteed at least £204 million

The winners of Saturday’s Championship play-off final between Luton and Coventry will be guaranteed a minimum of £204 million in what has come to be known as the most lucrative singles match in global team sport.

That amount is cash that the winning club gets – even if they finish bottom of the Premier League next season – that the losing club doesn’t get.

Both clubs hope to return to the top after a long absence. Luton were last in the old First Division in 1991-92 and Coventry were last in the Premier League in 2000-01.

The winners will receive a minimum of £102 million in Premier League TV and will earn payments next season even if they bottom out. Subsequent parachute payments would be worth a further £102 million.

The promoted club will also see a substantial increase in deals such as shirt and sleeve sponsors, a range of new commercial partners, matchday and corporate ticket sales and advertising revenue.

Revenue on top of Premier League cash is expected to total between £220m and £240m.