Lost £200,000 bonus after mistakenly named in Liverpool’s Champions League final squad

A former Liverpool player has been left gutted and £200,000 out of pocket after a Champions League final team blunder.

Stephen Warnock, who was a regular in the Reds’ trip to the final in Istanbul in 2005, making four European appearances, was initially named in the squad to face AC Milan only to be dropped due to an error.

The retired defender, now 42, shared his heartbreak on the Undr The Cosh podcast, recalling the moment he thought he had made the move. “I remember running after the last training session and thinking ‘please be in’,” he said.

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Warnock recalled a mixture of joy and shock as he reacted “damn” to seeing his name listed among the 18 players. However, the euphoria was short-lived when then-manager Rafa Benitez reversed the decision just hours later.

Detailing the heartbreaking call, Warnock said: “I rang the family and told them to book the plane tickets. I was at home getting everything ready, then the phone rings and it’s Pako Ayestaran, who was number two at the time. say, “I made a mistake with the team, you’re not in it.” I said “what?”.

For Warnock, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, the disappointment was profound, not to mention the significant financial loss. “It shouldn’t have come into it, but it did,” he admitted, via the Mirror.

“It was one of the biggest games of the football year but our bonus was massive either way. It was £100,000 to lose it and £200,000 to win it, and I was thinking damn, that’s a huge amount of money. , because I didn’t have that much money at the time.

“The other part was I was like, ‘Damn, that’s a lovely, nice bonus either way.’ You are a young boy, I started to think that last year I think that I will be in the championship. with Coventry having decent money but nowhere near that amount of money’.

Liverpool, of course, went on to beat Milan on penalties after their miraculous comeback from three goals down, meaning Warnock did indeed miss out on a £200,000 payday. “(Steven) Gerrard came up to me after the game and said ‘we’ll make sure you get your money’. I haven’t seen it yet. Why should I say that,” he added.

The saga, which also saw him miss the trophy parade after being moved on a separate flight home, was the beginning of the end for his Reds career. It was beyond the point of return with Benitez and he eventually left Merseyside in January 2007 to join Blackburn Rovers.