Peter Etherington

Introduction

Peter Etherington is a 68-year-old Yorkshire businessman who was jailed for 18 months at Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday 5 August 2026 for acting as a company director while disqualified. He was the man behind Professional Player, described on social media as “a luxury lifestyle magazine” read exclusively by professional footballers and their families, produced through his company PP Global Media Limited. Etherington admitted acting as a director of that company for more than three years between April 2019 and October 2022, despite having already been banned from managing companies three separate times. The sentence came only after a court appearance in which he failed to show up at all: an email, said to be from a family member, claimed he was in an induced coma — a claim that Insolvency Service checks contradicted.

Background Information

Etherington had been disqualified as a company director three times before the PP Global Media case. In February 2017 he received an 11-year disqualification following misconduct at Etherington Media Ltd, which included providing false documents for the transfer of intellectual property rights for Professional Player to his new company for £1. He was disqualified twice more for misconduct at 07 Media Limited: in September 2020, for ignoring his director ban while his company owed more than £55,000 in VAT, and again in June 2022 for acting as a director while disqualified. That June 2022 disqualification came with a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The company at the centre of the latest case was originally incorporated as 09 Media Limited in February 2019, changing its name the following month and registering its office address to Etherington’s home. Insolvency Service investigations found that despite numerous people being appointed as named directors between April 2019 and October 2022, Etherington exercised real control over PP Global Media Limited throughout — controlling the company’s finances, staffing and contracts while others were listed as directors “in name only”.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted; jailed. Etherington admitted acting as a director of PP Global Media Limited while disqualified for more than three years (April 2019 – October 2022) and pleaded guilty in March 2026. His January 2026 court no-show was attributed in an email, said to be from a family member, to an induced coma — a claim the evidence contradicted.

Evidence gathered during the Insolvency Service investigation showed that Etherington orchestrated the company’s key financial decisions. This included arranging a Bounce Back Loan in May 2020 by approaching a named director to sign the application on the company’s behalf. He also recruited a number of individuals to director roles, offering one a 5% shareholding and directorship at a meeting in July 2020, while retaining control over the company’s bank account and finances himself. Witnesses, including former directors and business contacts, confirmed that he directed staffing decisions, managed relationships with the company’s accountants and bookkeepers, negotiated advertising contracts, and approved significant expenditure.

One former director stated she had been “undermined and sidelined” in her role, and that Etherington had controlled the bank account and sanctioned payments without her knowledge or approval. Bank records showed that between December 2018 and January 2023, Etherington received more than £100,000 from the company account — more than any named director received during the same period. Even after the final named director resigned in February 2022, leaving no registered director at Companies House, he continued to organise workshops, pursue new business and negotiate the licensing of the PP Global brand.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The episode that drew widest attention was the January 2026 court no-show. Etherington was due to appear before Bradford Magistrates’ Court, but the court was read an email, said to be from a family member, stating he had been placed in an induced coma. The Insolvency Service contacted two local hospitals and found he had not been a recent inpatient there; information also suggested he “may have been seen in Tesco”. During the same period he had updated his Facebook profile and signed a legal document. David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said director disqualifications “exist to protect the public from people who have shown they cannot be trusted in business”, that ignoring the bans is “a criminal offence” and Etherington “is a persistent offender” who “treated the disqualifications with utter contempt, hiding behind others while he continued to pull the strings”, running “the same business through one phoenix company after another”.

Etherington pleaded guilty in March 2026 and was due to be sentenced in May, but missed a probation appointment, with the court told he does not own a phone. When he finally appeared at Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday 5 August 2026, he was jailed for 18 months, five months of which came from the activated suspended sentence he had breached. He was also disqualified as a company director for a further 10 years, running to August 2036.

Current Status

Etherington is serving an 18-month prison term imposed at Bradford Crown Court on 5 August 2026, and is banned from acting as a company director until August 2036 — his fourth disqualification. He was declared bankrupt in July 2026, the month before sentencing. The Insolvency Service states that individuals subject to a disqualification order or undertaking are bound by a range of restrictions, and it invites reports of disqualified directors breaching their bans. PP Global Media Limited (company number 11821673), Etherington Media Ltd (company number 07998265) and 07 Media Limited (company number 10524417) are all named in the official record of the case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Three disqualifications — 11 years in 2017, further bans in 2020 and 2022, and a suspended prison term attached to the last — did not stop Etherington from running the same magazine business through what the Insolvency Service described as one phoenix company after another. The fourth ban, 10 years running to August 2036, now comes with an immediate 18-month custodial sentence and a bankruptcy declared weeks before he was jailed. The court’s assessment of his conduct — hiding behind named directors who held the titles while he controlled the bank account, drew the largest share of company money and made the key decisions — is now a matter of criminal conviction rather than civil register entries.

Sources

• GOV.UK (Insolvency Service), “Company director who avoided court by claiming to be in a coma is jailed for hiding behind others to run football magazine business while banned” — source