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The trials and tribulations of Leeds United: Business and club

Let’s be honest about it, Leeds United have had a spectacularly rough year.

A change of ownership, a disgraced manager (currently on his 134th day in a Middle Eastern jail for allegendly siphoning off around £4 million from his former employers into his own bank accounts) and rife with media gossip and what are effective PR black holes.

The ongoing saga between David Haigh and Leeds’ previous owners Gulf Finance House (who still remain minority shareholders in the club) in Dubai has made for salacious media fodder for months. It’s just unfortunate that LUFC’s name gets dragged through the mud again everytime Haigh pops up in a tabloid or online.

Because after all, Leeds Utd is not only a club, it’s a brand; a brand that’s taking a fair hammering.

Now, Leeds is encountering a different set of a problems. The obligatory rich and flamboyant club owner Massimo Cellino (who I have on good authority is an utter charmer) is a breath of fresh air to some and a disaster waiting to happen to others.

Getting off to an ill-omened start, the vehicle for Cellino’s whims, Eleonora Sports was, if you remember, walking a fine line when the Football League held out painfully against his ownership of the club, citing ‘dishonestly’ in a vague way that makes you feel like they made it up just to have an excuse to get rid of another foreign magnate in English Football.

Business-wise it has been a rocky year, and lacking in the strong silent type running the show, preferably with lots of money and financial know-how, cuts have been made behind the scenes and jobs may not be as secure as they were under GFH from reports coming out of Elland Road.

In all fairness to Cellino he has cut costs from a club that was hemorrhaging a reported £1 million a month.

This month, the yacht saga is holding Leeds back.

Cellino was found guilty of evading almost €390k or £305k of import tax duty on the boat he sailed into Cagliari harbour earlier this year, a first-grade conviction in Italy that he is appealing but which may prompt the League to again block him from ownership.

An independent QC had ruled previously that there was insufficient evidence to prove ‘dishonesty’ - now they have their opportunity to pounce.

So now in a strange twist of fate and of the English club football system, Leeds Utd may rest on an appeal over yacht tax in another country 2 years ago.

We can only hope that the League makes the correct decision and doesn’t plunge Leeds once again into the confusing maelstrom of ownerlessness and uncertainty

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .