Archive for September, 2009

Leeds United: ownership issues back on the agenda.

Sep 30th, 09 / Comments Off

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

Today’s Guardian has a peice which gives the Football League every excuse to finally investigate the real owners of the club. Given all the stuff over Notts County it would seen unwise of them not to ask some questions. The real meat in below lies in the fact that the club and Bates seem to have “misled” (insert your own word) a court!

The mystery surrounding the ownership of Leeds United has deepened after the club’s chairman, Ken Bates, admitted that he had made “an error” when he said in January that he jointly owned the club.

Bates had previously informed a court in Jersey that he and his long-term financial adviser, Patrick Murrin, each held one “management share” in Forward Sports Fund, the Cayman Islands-registered company which owns Leeds.

Yet in an affidavit sworn for the same court in May, Bates stated that in fact he does not have any shares in Forward at all. His previous statement, that he had been the joint owner, was “not correct,” he said, and “an error on my part”.

Coming in the wake of the controversy surrounding Notts County’s own mysterious ownership, the revelation that Leeds, one of the Football League’s biggest clubs, have unnamed offshore owners, will now prompt pressure on the Football League to investigate.

The affidavit, sworn in a legal action Leeds are bringing against a Jersey-based company, Admatch, for money Bates says the club is owed, attached a letter from the director of Château Fiduciaire, financial administrators of Forward, based in Geneva. The letter said there are 10,000 “participating shares” in Forward, and the owners will not be revealed because Château Fiduciaire protects its clients’ anonymity unless ordered by a court to disclose them.

Bates, in his affidavit, said: “Neither I, Mark Taylor [his solicitor and a Leeds director] or Shaun Harvey [Leeds' chief executive] are able to confirm who the ultimate beneficial owners of Forward are.”

According to the League’s regulations, club directors, anybody owning 30% or more of its shares, or anybody “who exercises or is able to exercise direct or indirect control over the affairs of a club” must declare themselves to the League and be passed as a “fit and proper person”.

As Bates had previously said he and Murrin owned “management shares” in Forward, and Taylor said they were the only shares, it seems logical to conclude that Bates and Murrin were submitted as Leeds’ joint 50% owners.

Neither the club, Taylor or Bates responded to the Guardian’s questions about who was submitted to the League as the club’s owners, nor how Bates could have made his “error” about whether he owned the football club.

The League does not disclose who have been named as the owners of a club for the purpose of the fit-and-proper-person test, claiming that it cannot do so under the Data Protection Act. But the fact that the owners of Leeds United are now revealed as holders of 10,000 shares in a Cayman Islands company, whose administrators will not disclose their identities without a court order, does beg the question about whether they have ever been passed as fit and proper.

That raises the possibility that Forward’s takeovers of Leeds, with Bates as the chairman, in 2005 then in 2007 when Forward bought the club from administrators, may never have been properly ratified by the League.

It has taken a while but slowly the tangled web is starting to unravel (and just in time for the team to carry on regardless) and more of the smoke Bates creates is lifting. Still some to go but again like Thorp Arch it all helps in opening some peoples eyes.

Contributions on the Leeds United Quagmire

Sniffer Nose: fans treated like mushrooms special: Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley, Millwall, WHU, Cardiff City, Swansea City

Sep 29th, 09 / Comments Off

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

What free country?

My eye was caught by this incidental story in today’s BBC “gossip column”: Burnley fan Jason Taylor is being forced to travel 50 miles to watch his team play Blackburn next month, despite living round the corner from Rovers’ Ewood Park ground. Clarets fans have been told that they must report to Turf Moor four hours before kick-off and travel the 13 miles to Blackburn by coach. After the game, the transport then returns them to Turf Moor. Notwithstanding it was tucked away in the “and finally” section I don’t think I can truly express how annoying and depressing the story is.

Following on from the recent stories around the forthcoming Swansea v Cardiff where a fan ban is being muted, hot on the tail of the FA’s dumb-arse charges against both West Ham United and Millwall (not forgetting Leeds United go to the New Den very soon) and remembering how Leeds fans used to get treated going to Cardiff’s old ground, this seems to have gone straight into No1 as over the top response to some antagonism from years back. Whatever the thinking of Lancashire Police is it stinks to high heaven that a PL game that may not ever take place again after season’s end is now considered a “threat” rather than something for that part of the country to look forward to!

Regular readers will be aware that I choose to boycott games at any ground where either the host club or police decide to interfere with my basic human right to choose my own form of travel or where I take possession of the ticket. In this case it seems that Burnley have chosen to make money out of an outrageous decision with the provision of coaches. Even if they were to provide transport for free the fact that is both clubs and the police have stoked the fire by agreeing to this ridiculous restriction. Apparently Burnley, Blackburn and Accrington Stanley (god knows what police plans would happen if the little club draws one of its bigger neighbours in the cup) fans can stand together in an attempt to save the latter but can’t be trusted to go to a PL game without a blatant disregard for people’s rights being imposed.

No previous events, be it the 80’s or earlier this season justify the treatment Burnley fans will receive (and by definition Blackburn Rovers fans will have to deal with in the return game) or the total disregard for normal football supporters, time to fight back, don’t let the police or greedy football clubs dictate to you (especially as YOU pay for both, through taxes and excessive ticket prices) just don’t go!

The Other 91 Basket Cases

They also served Leeds United: Lucas Radebe.

Sep 29th, 09 / Comments Off

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

A retrospective look at the full range of professional footballers that passed through Elland Road in the last 10 seasons (1999-2009).

The problem with this series is that for the vast majority of the time you are writing about a player who was either rubbish, didn’t stay very long or left under a cloud, something that can depress a little. However in the middle of all this you will eventually come across a player it is a privilege to retrospectively comment on, one such player, such as the true legend that is Lucas “The chief” Radebe.

Lucas Valeriu Radebe joined Leeds United in 1994 for the bargain sum of £250,000 from South African club Kaiser Chiefs and the same time we signed Philemon Masinga, with the assumption at the time that Masinga was the better player, how little we understood! It is useful to place these signings in context, 1994 is the year of the first democratic multi-racial elections in South Africa, and Apartheid was still in the short-term memory. Lucas himself had been a victim of the troubles of that country, being shot in Soweto, it was a brave and interesting move by Howard Wilkinson to sign the pair and perhaps one of those pivotal moments where you realise real life is more serious than football sometimes.

Radebe became a fantastic player for Leeds with an absolute determination in defense. Shown by his leadership and ability and this was recognised by George Graham who made Radebe captain of the team for the 1998/99 season. This was his reward for sticking at it despite a difficult first couple of seasons, in some respects it was that early period that helped mould Lucas into the player he became.

As captain of Leeds United, Radebe was part of a very successful period: in the 1998/1999 season, Leeds finished fourth in the FA Premier League qualifying for the UEFA Cup. During the 1999/2000 season, Leeds finished third in the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League, reaching the semi-finals in April 2001. God it still hurts to type and remember at the same time. Radabe was pivotal in both the young fearless team that so dazzled the PL and the slightly less impressive team that included the expensive imports. Throughout all the ups and downs, including the controversial stuff, Radebe remained a solid, consistent symbol of decency and stability.

In 2000, Radebe sustained serious knee and ankle injuries, which cost him a lot of games over almost two years including all of 2001-02. By the time he fully recovered the club was already in a spiral of decline. Radebe battled on but couldn’t prevent the relegation that overcome us, maybe if we had 11 of him instead of the pile of over-paid, over-pampered idiocy we did have we might have survived! Lucas played alongside Rio Ferdinand, Michael Duberry and Jonathan Woodgate and was better than them all!

My over-riding memory of Lucas Radebe was from the caviler days, whenever the likes of Kewell, Smith Bowyer, Harte and Bridges were running riot around opposition defenses he stood tall doing all the right pointing, whispering and directing. His overall play was underestimated, although I often thought his occasional run out in midfield took something away from him. The official record says 200 league games but his contribution over those 10 seasons was worth 4 times that total.

After a couple of cameo appearances in our first season in the CCC Radabe retired from the game and back to South Africa where he is considered an important symbol of that country’s growing development. Personal tragedy has overtaken him with the death of his wife and his own health suffering but he is still ploughs the furrow on the 2010 World Cup to be held in the country he is so proud of.

Writing something like this on a player like Radebe is difficult, you can never fully express his place in our hearts and to some extent there is no need to, we all do it every game when we repeat his name over 4 years after he left us. True recognition indeed and the only fitting expression of our gratitude needed.

Contributions on the Leeds United Quagmire