Guardian Unlimited Football | News | Leeds set for takeover
Sainsbury says he'll save Leeds
The man spearheading a proposed take-over of Leeds says he wants to save the club's soul
Staff and agencies
Thursday October 28, 2004
Krasner: "No statement will be issued at the present time"
Sebastian Sainsbury warned Leeds United chiefs today they face the stark choice of accepting his £25m bid or selling Elland Road.
Sainsbury confirmed he is the leader of a consortium whose bid for the club is being discussed at a specially convened board meeting this afternoon.
The 41-year-old banker and restauranteur insisted if he was successful the club's stadium would be saved and he would re-establish Leeds as one of the country's top clubs.
"The board has two options," said Sainsbury, "the option we have put forward or the option of selling Elland Road, the pride and joy of Leeds United for the past 85 years."
"They have to make a decision which is in the best interests of the shareholders, the players and particularly the fans, and I know which way I would go."
Leeds' current board, led by Gerald Krasner, have managed to significantly reduce Leeds' debt. But having sold their big-name stars and negotiated a lease-back deal on their training ground at Thorp Arch, only Elland Road remained.
Sainsbury said the primary intentions of his group including leading figures from the American Nova Finance Group were to buy back the Thorp Arch complex and provide manager Kevin Blackwell with cash to strengthen the team.
But he added he appreciated the weariness with which Leeds fans would greet renewed takeover speculation and vowed to listen closely to their wishes.
"I want to work closely with the supporters with the objective first of getting back into the Premiership," added Sainsbury, "then we must re-establish Leeds as a top club. When I was 12 years old and lived in London everybody knew who Leeds were."
"This is not going to be a Malcolm Glazer-type story or a Russian revolution."
"I want to be straight and avoid disappointing people. I want to communicate with the players and the supporters and to work out the next move together."
Sainsbury - the great grandson of the founder of the supermarket empire who boasts a number of high-profile business interests in London, has preferred a low-key lifestyle.
He has courted some degree of public prominence with his latest venture, an exclusive bar in west London's Sloane Street, in which Prince William is reputed to own shares, but he said he was aback by the level of interest in his first foray into the football world.
"This has opened my eyes to how much football means and it is quite a scary prospect," he explained, "I am not somebody who walks around with body guards or public relations officers and it is a scary thought that I will have a public profile."
"But this is one of greatest names in English football and anybody would relish the challenge of realising their enormous potential."
Before he can put his plans into place Sainsbury must persuade the current Leeds board of his intentions.
And three months of negotiations at Elland Road have not left him entirely confident of success today despite the future which he believes is at stake. Sainsbury said: "In three months of negotiations I have yet to sit in the same room with more than two members of the Leeds board at any one time."
"I don't know how you can close a deal in those situations. Today is the first time they will all have sat in the same room and discussed our offer."
Sainsbury says he'll save Leeds
The man spearheading a proposed take-over of Leeds says he wants to save the club's soul
Staff and agencies
Thursday October 28, 2004
Krasner: "No statement will be issued at the present time"
Sebastian Sainsbury warned Leeds United chiefs today they face the stark choice of accepting his £25m bid or selling Elland Road.
Sainsbury confirmed he is the leader of a consortium whose bid for the club is being discussed at a specially convened board meeting this afternoon.
The 41-year-old banker and restauranteur insisted if he was successful the club's stadium would be saved and he would re-establish Leeds as one of the country's top clubs.
"The board has two options," said Sainsbury, "the option we have put forward or the option of selling Elland Road, the pride and joy of Leeds United for the past 85 years."
"They have to make a decision which is in the best interests of the shareholders, the players and particularly the fans, and I know which way I would go."
Leeds' current board, led by Gerald Krasner, have managed to significantly reduce Leeds' debt. But having sold their big-name stars and negotiated a lease-back deal on their training ground at Thorp Arch, only Elland Road remained.
Sainsbury said the primary intentions of his group including leading figures from the American Nova Finance Group were to buy back the Thorp Arch complex and provide manager Kevin Blackwell with cash to strengthen the team.
But he added he appreciated the weariness with which Leeds fans would greet renewed takeover speculation and vowed to listen closely to their wishes.
"I want to work closely with the supporters with the objective first of getting back into the Premiership," added Sainsbury, "then we must re-establish Leeds as a top club. When I was 12 years old and lived in London everybody knew who Leeds were."
"This is not going to be a Malcolm Glazer-type story or a Russian revolution."
"I want to be straight and avoid disappointing people. I want to communicate with the players and the supporters and to work out the next move together."
Sainsbury - the great grandson of the founder of the supermarket empire who boasts a number of high-profile business interests in London, has preferred a low-key lifestyle.
He has courted some degree of public prominence with his latest venture, an exclusive bar in west London's Sloane Street, in which Prince William is reputed to own shares, but he said he was aback by the level of interest in his first foray into the football world.
"This has opened my eyes to how much football means and it is quite a scary prospect," he explained, "I am not somebody who walks around with body guards or public relations officers and it is a scary thought that I will have a public profile."
"But this is one of greatest names in English football and anybody would relish the challenge of realising their enormous potential."
Before he can put his plans into place Sainsbury must persuade the current Leeds board of his intentions.
And three months of negotiations at Elland Road have not left him entirely confident of success today despite the future which he believes is at stake. Sainsbury said: "In three months of negotiations I have yet to sit in the same room with more than two members of the Leeds board at any one time."
"I don't know how you can close a deal in those situations. Today is the first time they will all have sat in the same room and discussed our offer."