Mark Allen opens up on declaring himself bankrupt

 

Northern Ireland's Mark Allen has spoken frankly about the reasons which led him to declare himself bankrupt.

The 36-year-old says he hopes the worst of his personal and financial problems are now behind him but concedes that he made "some wrong moves" in the past.

"I just overspent in every aspect of my life," said Allen, who declared himself bankrupt in January 2021.

"Bankruptcy was the only choice. It's easy to read that I made £3.5m on the table, but I spent it as fast it was coming in."

Speaking to BBC Sport Northern Ireland, Allen, who has also gone through a costly divorce, described how he got himself "into such a hole".

"It was sad saying that given what I've made in the game and how well I've done. It's embarrassing, but the priority now is to get my life in order," he said.

"I didn't put any aside for a rainy day and if I was having a bad season I was still spending as if I was having a good season.

"You don't put enough away for tax and everything just snowballs. All the legal stuff with the divorce, if you have to pay for lawyers and barristers, it all mounts up.

"If I could go back I would be more sensible with money. If there was a car available at £50,000 I bought one at £80,000. If there was a house available at £1,500 per month, I'd spend one at £2,500.

"Everything just snowballed. I'm currently in rented accommodation. It's a bit embarrassing to say as number 10 in the world.

"I'm on guaranteed earnings going forward now and that takes away the risk of having a good season or bad."

Allen recently reached the British Open final in Milton Keynes, beating Judd Trump and Mark Selby in the process, before suffering an agonising 10-7 defeat to Welshman Ryan Day in the final at the Marshall Arena.

One of the main talking points of the ranking tournament was the former World Championship semi-finalist Allen's huge weight loss, which saw him shed almost five stone in the four months from last season.