Yorkshire Evening Post 2/10/09
Leeds United and council chiefs agree Thorp Arch deal
By Paul Robinson
Leeds City Council and Leeds United have struck a deal over the future of the club's Thorp Arch training ground.
Council bosses last month voted to make an offer to United regarding the purchase of the complex. Now the local authority has announced it has agreed terms with the football club. Subject to due diligence checks, the council will buy Thorp Arch from its current owners, Manchester-based company Barnaway Ltd, then lease it back to the club. United sold the complex to Manchester businessman Jacob Adler in 2004 as they tried to stave off financial collapse. They were given a 25-year lease on the facility as well as an option to repurchase it for a fixed price of about £6m.
That option, however, expires on October 10 - and earlier this year concerns were voiced the site could be lost to the club and the city once United's lease runs out in 2029. Leeds approached the council for help after failing in attempts to raise money themselves for the buy-back.
The council's joint leader, Coun Richard Brett, said: "We have settled the main terms of any agreement with Leeds United and look forward to completing our due diligence work so that matters can be concluded as soon as possible."


Yorkshire Post 30/9/09
Leeds United 1 Carlisle United 1: Leeds lose winning run after Carlisle grab draw
By Richard Sutcliffe
at Elland Road
CARLISLE UNITED again proved their liking for Elland Road by repeating their trick of being the only side to dent Leeds United's otherwise invincible home record in 2009.
Scott Dobie's dramatic 75th-minute equaliser ensured the Cumbrians gained deserved reward from their return trip to West Yorkshire.
And it could have been even better for Carlisle with Jermaine Beckford's first-half opener only coming courtesy of a debatable penalty award. Without that, Greg Abbott's men could well have claimed another three points to go with their 2-0 triumph over Leeds in January.
Simon Grayson's side did at least have the consolation of extending their lead at the top to three points courtesy of Charlton Athletic's 3-0 defeat at Colchester United.
It means United boast the only remaining unbeaten record in all four divisions of English football, a welcome tonic ahead of this weekend's eagerly-anticipated showdown with Phil Parkinson's second-placed Addicks. But there was no getting away from Leeds's display being distinctly below par last night with the midfield, in particular, struggling to make any headway against the battling Cumbrians.
Neither Jonny Howson nor Michael Doyle stamped their authority on the game with only Robert Snodgrass showing the sort of skills needed to open up a side who had clearly come to frustrate their hosts. The visitors may have again been wearing red but that was the only similarity between much of last night's game and the pulsating Carling Cup tie against Liverpool a week earlier.
Then, a cauldron of noise had roared a United side employing a high tempo approach forward to give the Premier League giants a real scare en route to booking their place in the fourth round.
Against a Carlisle side employing a five-man midfield designed to frustrate their hosts, it was a very different story with Leeds struggling to make the breakthrough plenty of possession.
That was, however, until the game's main talking point on 30 minutes when visiting manager Greg Abbott was left so incensed by the awarding of a penalty that he was sent to the stands for continuing his protests to the fourth official long after Leeds had gone ahead.
Abbott's anger was understandable with referee Russell Booth harshly adjudging Richard Keogh to have clipped Michael Doyle's leg as he tried to reach a cushioned header from Luciano Becchio.
Even then, it was debatable that the offence even took place inside the penalty area.
If it did, the worst the former Huddersfield Town defender seemed guilty of was touching the ball behind for a corner but Booth, after consulting his linesman, still pointed to the spot.
Beckford duly stepped forward to resume penalty taking duties for the first time since his costly miss in last May's play-off semi-final exit to Millwall.
Anyone hoping United's spotkick jinx was over – they have already missed one this season to go with five last term – was sadly disappointed with Beckford's lame effort being easily saved by Lenny Pidgeley.
This time, however, Lady Luck was smiling on United's top scorer as the ball rebounded kindly for him to tap into the empty net.
Buoyed by having gone ahead, Leeds briefly poured forward and were unfortunate not to double their advantage when Snodgrass cut inside former Elland Road favourite Ian Harte and unleashed a left-foot shot that crashed against the Carlisle post.
Leeds continued in the ascendancy in the early stages of the season with Beckford coming close seven minutes after the restart with a wickedly dipping curled effort from 25 yards that landed on top of the net with Pidgeley stranded.
Carlisle refused to be beaten, though, with Tom Taiwo, one of the two Leeds youngsters controversially lured to Chelsea in a £4.5m deal three years ago, seeing more and more of the ball.
And after Carlisle had twice came close through Matt Robson, the equaliser duly arrived 15 minutes from time when Dobie firmly met Kevan Hurst's corner to power a header past Casper Ankergren.
Leeds huffed and puffed in the closing stages with Snodgrass twice going close before having to be substituted after a heavy challenge midwway inside the Carlisle half. Beckford then had a golden chance to extend United's winning run in the league on home soil to 16 games only for his usual composure to desert the striker in front of goal as he latched on to an Enoch Showunmi flick-on.

Leeds United: Ankergren; Bromby (Kilkenny 38), Naylor, Kisnorbo, Hughes; Snodgrass, Howson (Prutton 66), Doyle, Johnson; Becchio (Showunmi 83), Beckford. Unused substitutes: Fielding, Kilkenny, Grella, Michalik, Robinson.
Carlisle United: Pidgeley; Raven, Livesey, Keogh, Harte; Hurst, Bridge-Wilkinson (Dobie 70), Kavanagh, Taiwo (Murphy 85), Robson; Anyinsah. Unused substitutes: Collin, Horwood, Murphy, Rothery, Offiong, Burns.
Referee: R Booth (Nottinghamshire)

Guardian 30/9/09
Riddle of Leeds' ownership remains shrouded in mystery
Who exactly owns the Elland Road club is still wrapped in secrecy after four years of Ken Bates' chairmanship
The ownership of Leeds United has been routed via a network of offshore companies ever since Ken Bates arrived at Elland Road as the club's new chairman in 2005, and now mystery surrounds it again.
Bates told the Royal Court of Jersey in January this year that he himself jointly owned the club's holding company, the Cayman Islands-registered Forward Sports Fund, with his long-term financial advisor, the Guernsey accountant Patrick Murrin. It has since emerged that in May Bates swore an affidavit in the same court, stating that it had been "not correct" and "an error on my part" to say he was the joint owner of his club.
Contrary to what he and his solicitor Mark Taylor, also a Leeds director, had told the court in January, there are in fact 10,000 shares in Forward, and Bates does not own any of them. Forward's administrators, based in Geneva, have refused to say who the owners of those shares are.
The ownership of Leeds, then – the Yorkshire club finally on the rise inLeague One after years of financial horror – is unknown. That begs a serious question over whether the club's current owners have ever been passed as "fit and proper" people according to Football League regulations, and therefore whether the takeover of the club by Bates has actually been ratified.
Bates first became the chairman of Leeds, which was in grim financial meltdown, in January 2005. He emerged as the chairman again in 2007, after he and his fellow directors, Taylor and the chief executive, Shaun Harvey, had slashed the club's debts by placing it in administration owing creditors £35m. Forward Sports Fund, which originally bought the club in 2005, also bought it from the administrators, ultimately paying 17p in the pound to those owed the millions.
The ownership of Leeds has been illuminated gradually in the Jersey court, where Leeds are suing a company, Admatch, which Bates claims owes Leeds money. Admatch is counter-suing, arguing that it was owed considerably more when another Leeds United company was put into liquidation. Admatch's owner, Robert Weston, who is personally representing his company against Bates' lawyers, has made it an issue in court to seek the identity of the club's ultimate owners, and he has won a series of judicial orders forcing Bates to declare who they are.
In January, Leeds' Jersey lawyers told the court that Bates and Murrin, who has worked closely with Bates for 30 years, owned one "management share" each in Forward. Taylor subsequently told the Guardian that there were no other shares in Forward and that meant Bates and Murrin were the fund's, and therefore the club's, joint owners.
Neither Leeds nor the League would divulge this week the names which the club has submitted as the club's owners to be passed as "fit and proper", according to the League's requirements. It would, though, be logical to assume that Bates and Murrin were presented as the joint owners.
It has since emerged that on 6 May, Bates swore an affidavit following another Jersey court order for him to disclose Forward Sports Fund's "ultimate beneficial ownership". In that sworn statement, Bates said he had approached Murrin in January 2005 "to enquire whether investors, represented by him, would consider backing me by making an investment in Leeds United".
Bates suggested to Murrin that an investment vehicle be formed and: "Patrick Murrin arranged for the incorporation of FSF, a fund incorporated in the Cayman Islands."
Bates, in his statement, said he left the financing of Forward to Taylor, who negotiated with Murrin for Forward to lend Leeds £4.4m.
"As far as I was aware there were two management shares issued in Forward," Bates swore in his affidavit. "One was issued to Patrick Murrin, and the other to a Mr Peter Boatman, a representative of a Geneva based fiduciaire [trust administrators], representing the interests of the investor group. This information has only just come to light and the information contained in our advocate's [lawyers'] letter, dated 5 December 2008, which stated that I had the other of the management shares in Forward, was not correct and was an error on my part."
Bates went on to say that although he manages "the direction of Forward on a day-to-day basis … the ultimate decisions rest with the participating shareholders".
His affidavit concluded: "Neither I, Mark Taylor or Shaun Harvey are able to confirm who the ultimate beneficial owners of Forward are."
Attached to the affidavit was a letter from Taylor, dated 27 April, to Château Fiduciaire, Forward's Geneva-based administrators, in which Taylor said the Leeds directors believed Forward had two management shares, owned by Bates and Murrin, and there were no other shares in the company.
Château Fiduciaire replied nine days later, saying there were two management shares, issued to Murrin and Boatman, and neither carried voting or ownership rights. "Ten thousand participating shares are also in issue," the letter said. "Understandably, it is not the policy of this company, a fully regulated Swiss fiduciaire, to release information on ultimate ownership without an appropriate court order, valid in Switzerland."
The revelation by Bates that he made "an error" when he said he jointly owned Forward, and the Château Fiduciaire letter, means the ownership of Leeds, still one of English football's potential giants, is undeclared. The Yorkshire club apparently belongs to the holders of 10,000 shares in a company registered in the Cayman Islands, administered in Geneva by trustees who refuse to reveal the owners' identity.
That represents grounds for the Football League to investigate, according to the Liberal Democrat MP, Phil Willis, who has consistently campaigned for greater transparency in the ownership of Leeds and clarity in the way the 2007 administration was handled.
"Leeds United is a fantastic football club whose loyal and dedicated supporters have stuck by it through thick and thin," Willis said yesterday. "They have a right to know who owns their club and that those people are fit and proper. The Football League must revisit this case to ensure that its rules, that owners must be passed as fit and proper, have been met."
Neither Bates nor Taylor responded to questions from the Guardian about how the error was made over the Leeds ownership, and who the club has submitted to the league as its owners.
In another court action this summer, the former Leeds director Melvyn Levi's libel claim against Bates in London, Bates confirmed that he has never put any of his own money into Leeds United. Levi won that case, which Bates is now seeking leave to appeal.
The Premier League asks its clubs to publish all owners of 10% or more of their shares, but the Football League does not make ownership details public, claiming it is unable to do so due to the Data Protection Act. The revelation that Leeds United's owners are unknown, and offshore, comes as the League board prepares to decide whether to pass as fit and proper Notts County's takeover – by a group of investors, not yet fully identified, in a fund administered from Switzerland.


ASTOR QUESTION
The mystery over Leeds United's owners raises a question, too, over the most controversial aspect of the club's 2007 insolvency. Bates, as the chairman, and Forward Sports Fund were supported in buying the club back from the administrators by another offshore company, Astor Investment Holdings. Astor was prepared to write off £18m it was owed, as long as Bates and Forward remained in charge, an offer not made to any other bidders, and so crucial to Bates retaining control.
The administrators said then they were satisfied there was no connection between Astor and Forward, or Bates, which would have required a separate vote, without Astor, to be taken. Mark Taylor clarified then that there had previously been an ownership connection, but it had been severed when Astor sold Forward to Bates and Patrick Murrin.
Now it has been revealed that Forward never was sold to Bates nor Murrin. Asked how, in fact, the connection between Astor and Forward was severed, Taylor did not respond.



Yorkshire Evening Post 28/9/09
Gritty Leeds United get late reward at MK Dons
By Phil Hay
MK Dons 0 Leeds United 1
If the circumstances that sought to conspire against Leeds United on Saturday are as ineffectual as they proved to be, what chance does the rest of League One have?
The club's preparation for their game in Milton Keynes was not a lesson in perfection. It started inauspiciously with a compassionate decision to leave behind Luciano Becchio and ended in the same, problematic vein when a clerical error omitted Enoch Showunmi from their final squad.
The mistake was Simon Grayson's; its cost, a reduced group of six substitutes with not a single striker among them. To complicate his job further, two players chosen to start at MK Dons were injured inside 63 minutes, reacquainting Grayson with the lack of control caused by stretched resources. That has been the domain of other managers in United's division this season.
Against that backdrop, the final straw could have been the laboured tone of his players' collective performance, but there are few situations in which Leeds seem unable to find a crumb of inspiration. Disrupted, weakened and slightly out of sorts, the priceless winning goal scored by Robert Snodgrass three minutes into injury-time implied that their season can only end one way.

Inspiration
In forcing that goal – the only one scored on an afternoon when inspiration was every bit as scarce – Leeds were gratefully assisted by a straight red card shown to Jason Puncheon, a hindrance which to Paul Ince's mind outweighed every factor constraining Grayson.
Puncheon's dismissal at the very end of the first half convinced MK Dons that the victory they had been unable to set up before the interval would likely prove unattainable with only 10 players, but even the goalless draw his team were 60 seconds from completing might have struck Ince as an opportunity missed.
If not exactly vulnerable on Saturday, United's dwindling head-count and lacklustre persona made them as susceptible to defeat as they have been this season, the first time a victory has relied on sheer will.
Four days after the club's Carling Cup tie against Liverpool, Grayson did not anticipate a steep descent in Milton Keynes from the commendable standard his players reached at Elland Road on Tuesday night, but the drain on their imagination was perhaps more extreme than he had expected. Before half-time, Leeds failed to concoct a shot on target.
That father-to-be Becchio was not involved did not appear entirely coincidental. The Argentinian was expecting his first child over the weekend and he remained in Yorkshire when United's squad left for Milton Keynes on Friday after his wife went into labour.
Becchio's qualities are a subject of almost weekly appreciation but the striker's style is such that his strengths are almost more conspicuous by their absence. Without him, Jermaine Beckford was quickly isolated and United’s midfield grew detached from Beckford and Mike Grella until a rush of blood from Puncheon in first-half injury-time gave the visiting players more freedom to roam.
Puncheon’s crime was a two footed tackle on Michael Doyle on the halfway line, a challenge that swiped the ball with one leg and Doyle with the other. Grayson was charitable, defending Puncheon as “not that type of player”, though it did not stop him from remonstrating with the midfielder as he walked towards the tunnel.
Ince said the tackle was “probably in between a yellow and a red”, as close as he was going to come to concurring with referee Andy D’Urso, who was not intent on making friends in Milton Keynes, try though he did to influence proceedings.
D’Urso had earlier refused to bend when Leeds realised before kick-off that Showunmi’s name was unintentionally missing from their teamsheet, a careless error which Grayson held his hands up to.
Showunmi warmed up with the rest of United’s players, intending to take a place on the bench, but D’Urso was unwilling to allow an addition to the original squad which had been submitted to him. Leeds, as Grayson later conceded, were in no position to argue.
The contentious involvement of the Essex official – a man dropped from the Select Group list in 2005 – did not end there but a fussy performance in a match dominated by his whistle did more damage to MK Dons than it did to Leeds. In mitigation, the constant sniping which numerous players were guilty of, hardly helped.
Puncheon’s foul was reckless enough to warrant the red card D’Urso showed to him. Ince’s complaint was rather one of consistency, aimed towards the referee and indirectly at Snodgrass.
Twenty minutes before the dismissal of Puncheon, Snodgrass incurred punishment by reacting to a clumsy tackle from Dean Lewington by pushing the defender in the back of the head.
D’Urso had the option of applying the letter of the law and red-carding Snodgrass, soft though the dismissal would have been. Instead, he limited himself to a caution. The consequence of that leniency was the late header with which Snodgrass settled an important game.
Before his winning goal, it had taken Leeds fully 45 minutes to settle into the match. Patrick Kisnorbo and Jermaine Beckford guided efforts over the crossbar in quick succession at the end of the first half but they were tepid replies to the few chances and general control enjoyed by MK Dons.
Saturday’s game was a meeting between League One’s leaders and the division’s fourth-placed club, but reasonable predictions of an open and eager fixture were unfounded. A sense of muddled dislocation hung over both teams and Ince’s sensible response to Puncheon’s dismissal – constructing a five-man midfield and leaving the cumbersome Aaron Wilbraham as a lone striker – added to the congestion.
In the first half, Wilbraham’s scuffed shot allowed Shane Higgs to gather easily after Leigh Bromby’s sliding tackle robbed Jemal Johnson of possession and diverted it to the feet of Ince’s tall forward 10 yards from goal, and Higgs was on hand again with a low parry when Puncheon attacked his goal from long range a minute before his dismissal.
Leeds did not draw an especially flattering comparison with Ince’s side before half-time, though the loss of Jason Crowe to a pulled hamstring after seven minutes did nothing to help. With an hour gone, Grayson found himself making another enforced and unwanted change when Higgs injured a thigh.
It seemed to be one of those days. As United’s advantage of numbers took effect, Howson picked out Beckford’s angled run into the box and saw the striker clip the ball into Willy Gueret’s net at the very moment that an offside flag rose on the sideline. Howson himself found Gueret badly exposed with five minutes to play but drilled a low shot against the foot of Darren Powell, stationed on the goalline.
Grayson had no additional cards to play by that stage but his players produced one last trick as the game crept into a third minute of added time. Bradley Johnson was bundled over on the left wing but composed himself to pick out Snodgrass in a crowd of players with a free-kick which the Scot nodded through Gueret’s hands.
Snodgrass sprinted straight to the away dug-out, acknowledging a coach whose midas touch grows stronger by the week. On the club’s last visit to MK Dons, United’s players effectively sacked their manager. Grayson need have no such fears.

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