Mighty Leeds Weblog

by Phil Hay The Leeds United Supporters Trust’s developing plan to buy shares in Leeds United comes at a time of relative calm at Elland Road. Were a stake to fall into their hands next week – which, by LUST’s own admission, it won’t – the organisation would not be buying into a club in genuine crisis. In that respect they have the time and flexibility which Swansea City’s Supporters Trust worked without in 2002. The YEP revealed last Saturday how LUST are piecing together the money and regulatory paperwork needed to bid for a 10 per cent stake in Leeds. They are attempting to do what their counterparts in Swansea did almost 12 years ago when, with City suffering at the hands of businessman and owner Tony Petty, they joined a local consortium and bought shares: 20 per cent of Swansea for a fee of £200,000. City were part of England’s old third division back then. At the end of the 2002-03 season they finished 21st, marginally above the Football League breadline, but a decade in bed...

Ken Bates’ wish to remain at Elland Road in some capacity was fundamental to the sale of the club to GFH capital. Phil Hay reports. The retention of Ken Bates as Leeds United chairman and his future appointment as president was so fundamental to the sale of the club that GFH Capital did not believe it could complete its purchase without agreeing to those terms. Salem Patel, a director of GFH Capital and a member of the Elland Road board, talked in December about the need to “leverage” on Bates’ experience of English football but admitted in the end that “that was the deal.” When push came to shove, Bates’ wish to remain in some capacity was apparently non-negotiable. GFH Capital remains committed to that arrangement and on June 30 Bates will resign as chairman and as a club director, giving up his seat in the boardroom. As revealed by the YEP yesterday, the following day he will begin a stint as president which, under the terms of the sale of United on December 21, will run for thre...