I'm not sure you know how PAYE works.From my experience most footballers get paid gross and it’s up to them to pay the tax. They are then free to employ a company secretary (wife, Mum, dad etc), have property portfolios which they can renovate, company car etc all to offset tax. Unless there’s been a big clampdown this has always been the case.
Wes Brown owns a company which is classed as a ‘farm’ which get all sorts of tax benefits