From representing his hometown rugby league club St Helens on the sport’s biggest stages, to helping the North West’s business owners understand and plan their tax affairs, Paul Clough’s career has certainly been one of two halves.
One of professional sport’s biggest challenges is ensuring its full-time athletes have a path into new careers after their playing days. While some stay involved with sport through coaching, physiotherapy, or media work, it was a career in finance that perked the tough-tackling forward’s interest most.
After initially completing his financial services qualifications in 2014 and beginning his post rugby career as a financial advisor, Paul has now transitioned into the world of tax with the help of national accountancy and advisory firm MHA, the UK member firm of Baker Tilly International.
His rugby league career included more than 350 professional matches between 2005 and 2021 at top-level teams such as St Helens, Bradford Bulls and Huddersfield Giants, with career highlights including back-to-back Challenge Cup victories and three League Leaders’ Shields.
He said: “Playing professional rugby league taught me a lot but it was always in my mind that my career could end at any moment – possibly in one tackle - and that at some point I would need to get another job.
"My old amateur coach was a financial adviser and that appealed to me. The charity Rugby League Cares was established in 2014 and was involved in encouraging players to think about their career after the game. We were given Wednesday afternoons to help us prepare for the future which was extremely helpful"
Paul’s final contract at Widnes Vikings during the 2021 season was part-time, which gave him further freedom to pursue his career after rugby and he worked in financial services for several years.
However, while Paul enjoyed working directly with clients, he did not enjoy certain parts of financial advice such as the volatility of the global stock market and began considering associated industries.
"I enjoyed the planning, researching technical points and the client-facing aspect of the role so decided to pursue a career in tax as it allowed me to continue to take part in these areas. However, my qualifications were not tax related and pursuing a graduate scheme at 35-36 would not have been ideal, especially given I already had experience in finance."
Paul approached the talent acquisition team at MHA directly to understand the opportunities available and gained an interview with tax partners Rachel Marsdin and Tony Reddin for a role as tax adviser.
This would allow him to join the firm as an experienced hire at its Liverpool office, then study his formal qualifications while working for the firm.
He was successful in the interview and joined the firm in February 2024.
“It’s been such a steep learning curve but so enjoyable,” he said. “The team offering to put me through the professional qualifications meant I was able to study without going through the graduate scheme.”
Paul passed The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) exams in November 2024 within 10 months of starting the qualification and is now studying for his Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA) exams, the gold standard qualification for tax professionals.
Given Paul’s background in managing wealth, he specialises in helping to advise owner-managed businesses and also sits on MHA’s national internal panel for high-net-worth individuals, which helps to shape the company’s strategy about the best way to support these clients.
Reflecting on his two careers to date, Paul highlights the surprising number of similarities between top-flight rugby league and managing the tax affairs of businesses and their owners across the North West.
He said: “There are a lot of similarities and transferrable skills – teamwork and consistency to achieve the best long-term outcomes.
“In both environments, you gain constant feedback but one of the great things about MHA is feedback works both ways. Everyone has a mentor and it’s a really supportive environment where the partners are happy to take suggestions on how to improve the service we give to our clients.”
Paul’s involvement in rugby league is now as a fan, which sometimes includes taking clients to watch his former team St Helens.
He added: “Rugby league required a lot of sacrifices from early on. My son is 16 and now that I am working in a professional setting, I get to spend more time with him and my wife. It’s nice to have experienced that previous life but now it’s nice to be experiencing another, helping our clients while working as part of a collaborative, growing team.”
