FAO Svlad - Leeds Utd Ownership

[handbags_harris]

So Leeds Utd have confirmed that Ken Bates is the new owner, and they hope this ends all speculation surrounding the club ownership. This, however, only serves to answer the present, so who the hell owned them before? Obviously I don't expect anyone to be able to answer that unless they work deep within the bowels of Elland Road, but what are the FA/FL regulations surrounding club ownership?

AFAIK Leeds Utd's board, in particular Ken Bates, was very secretive about that and never answered questions about it (knowing him it's because he had something to hide) but what I want to know is if there will be an investigation into their ownership to establish if they were actually breaking any regulations, and if they are likely to receive any kind of punishment if they have...?

[Svlad Cjelli]

..

[Svlad Cjelli]

The simple answer to this is that the FL knew all along (or at least very much suspected) that Bates had a controlling interest in at least some of the trusts that owned 9.9% of Leeds, but simply didn't have sufficient resources to hire financial investigators to do a full forensic investigation of offshore trusts.

The guys at the FL have come across all of KB's tricks and loopholes over the years and are, frankly, sick of them - I think they've given up on trying to rein him in, and all they can do is slowly tighten the ownership regulations one by one and see what loopholes he can find - but in a pissing competition they simply don't have the resources to take him on.

It's a pretty poor situation, yes, but it's inevitable when you have one League of 20 professional clubs which has riches beyond the dreams of avarice and another representing 72 which has a hand-to-mouth existence dependant upon a few crumbs that come their way.

The PL does have the resources and will forensically investigate ownership - although they won't share their findings. Strange that when there's a whiff of Promotion the Leeds ownership situation suddenly becomes clear...

[6ft Kerplunk]

Strange that when there's a whiff of Promotion the Leeds ownership situation suddenly becomes clear...

Yeah and not at all strange that the people that owned Leeds before would want to sell just before the shed load of Premiership cash might arrive. Still I'm sure they'll spend the 1p, or whatever the nominal amount was that Bates transferred between his bank accounts, wisely. Do the companies involved publish have to publish their financial accounts where they're based?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Strange that when there's a whiff of Promotion the Leeds ownership situation suddenly becomes clear...

Yeah and not at all strange that the people that owned Leeds before would want to sell just before the shed load of Premiership cash might arrive. Still I'm sure they'll spend the 1p, or whatever the nominal amount was that Bates transferred between his bank accounts, wisely. Do the companies involved publish have to publish their financial accounts where they're based?

No. They're all offshore-registered trusts.

[Svlad Cjelli]

PS - as yet there's no actual proof that KB has bought control of Leeds. Just KB's word on it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/may/03/leeds-united-ken-bates-owner

[Svlad Cjelli]

Just to ---er - clarify :