Leeds minus 15

Leeds United are a little lighter in the points department and will be at the bottom of the table for at least the first five games of next season as their appeal of a 15 point penalty has been denied.

The penalty was levied as a breach of the Football League's insolvency policy.

The chairmen and other Football League clubs voted today to uphold the original punishment with more than ¾ of clubs voting to uphold the punishment.

In typical “old boys network” style, a fine was not levied on Leeds, something that would hurt Mafia-owner Ken Bates, but instead deduct points, hurting the clubs fans. It’s a pathetic saga.

I have documented the story here and here, I don’t even want to get into again, it’s so pathetic and Ken Bates such a low-life.

When Harry Kewell scored that goal against Arsenal….

Remember when Liverpool winger Harry Kewell scored a brilliant goal when he was with Leeds United against Arsenal back in 2003? Those were better days for Leeds, now mired with a mafia of ownership and a good change at sinking to League 2 with a 15 point deduction.

Let’s focus on something positive, though.

It was only the 5th minute, the ball was in the Leeds half with Arsenal passing well and finding their stride. The ball was cut out in defense as Jason Wilcox launched a 40 meter ball over the top of 2 Arsenal defenders.

Kewell does brilliantly to control the ball with the top of his chest, it looks like a hand ball but it’s not. Watch the replay. With the ball on the ground Kewell decides to load up and go first time for goal across David Seaman with a searing shot. Excellent quality, the best goal he’s ever scored.

Here is the goal:

PS: This post will make it one million page views on the blog since it started, thanks for the kind email, readership and support!

See the entire greatest goals ever series

Old boys network give Ken his way

15 points, so what. So Leeds get to play next season and the “old boys” sanctions the less than upfront legal dealings of one Ken Bates: a man who promised a lot, delivered nothing and still manages to maintain control of a club who sorely needs something better.

For a background of the scheme which saw Bates buy back Leeds even when there were higher bids for the club, I discussed it in detail here. In that article I predicted the old boys network within the League would sanction these dirty dealings -and they did. Like clockwork. To cover their tracks they have imposed a 15 point penalty which is something, but not enough to force one of the worst owners in history out.

The only thing that would have achieved that is to withhold the club’s CVA and force Bates to sell to a ‘fit and proper person’. In typical Bates style, he has appealed against the sanction imposed by the Football League.

Like I said in my previous article, this is how soft corruption works. No disrespect to you Leeds fans, buy you’d have been better off missing the season. Now all you have is a crappy owner and a 15 point hill to climb.

And to top it off, a club statement said:

"The club has received an amount of criticism from supporters for not keeping them up to date with developments during what has been a very difficult time for us all.

We appreciate this policy was difficult for fans to accept, but please be assured that this has been done in the best interests of Leeds United, which is justified by the return of the share.”

That is the most pathetic piece of PR crap I have ever seen. The best interest of Leeds is to get rid of blood-sucker Ken Bates who ran your distinguished and historic club into the ground and likely League 2 next season. Just remember, neither the League or Bates was thinking of you: Bates is by no means bankrupt, your club is.

Leeds United: Enough!

Ok boys, toothpicks under the eyelids, stay awake, because below is an example of just how corruption and the ‘old boys network’ works and you get shafted. Leeds United should have kept the sharks like Ken Bates away from their club because he has mucked it up so badly that you are likely a decade or more away from the Premiership again.

Your clubs players have not been paid, but tax evasion, offshore companies, strange ownership deals, odd consulting fees, and generally pushing the rules to the limit have created such an un-understandable murky mess that you’d need an army of lawyers and accountants to decipher it.

To make this as basic as I personally understand it, Leeds declared bankruptcy and KPMG sold the company immediately back to the same owners and have somehow had their debts forgiven to some offshore company. So a creditor has lent all this money to Leeds, then suddenly written off the entire loan. Huh?

Can I get one of these too? I got a house that would be nice to play such a trick with.

Beyond all of this, bids were made to buy the club that were much better than Ken Bates's but some behind the scenes forces have somehow made sure it’s his bid that was accepted. Stranger still.

Can I have an account on eBay like this?

So Ken Bates won control of Leeds United again despite accountants KPMG being presented with bigger cash offers. Bates, and who knows who, put up an offer but so did Redbus Group and Simon Morris –who offered twice as much.

The gambit was that Astor Investment Holdings, the strange offshore company holding the debt, said it would forgive the 17m pounds it was owed. Had any other bidder won, Astor would have demanded the money. Very unusual to say the least.

Ah, but the soft corruption has a source: KPMG stated was appointed Leeds administrators by a representative of Astor Investment Holdings, one Mark Taylor, who just happens to be a director of “Leeds United 2007 Ltd”, the name of the new company Bates formed to buy what he already owned.

The League has so far refused to sign over its "golden share" of membership to this new company, which was not bought via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) of creditors.

The League has never approved a sale and transfer of a “golden share” without a CVA being agreed. Ken Bates wants an exception.

The question I would beg to know the answer to is how Leeds became indebted to offshore companies. Accounting tricks? Smells like it. And how, now, can these debts that seemed to contribute to the club’s bankruptcy be forgotten. Why not before –before players were not being paid?

So since Leeds is sold, and they don’t yet have permission to play in the upcoming season, a problem exists. But maybe not.

Here is where the old boys network kicks in: Leeds, historic club and all, just can’t miss a season and disappoint their fans, can they? That would crush the fans, wouldn’t it? So, the old boys will decide that it just can’t happen, you know, disappoint the fans, so they will ok this ‘exception’ and legitimize whatever sneaky dealings have gone on here.

So, use the masses to enrich the classes. This is a classic political gambit and it will work again. Were Leeds to miss a season and force a sale to a reputable person, my guess is that they would be back up among the elite faster than you can say CORRUPTION.