Leeds fans urge board to listen

A Leeds supporters’ chief has urged the board to stop treating fans “like a minor annoyance” and be “completely transparent” about the state of the club.

The board turned down a £20m (€30.1m) takeover bid by Leeds businessman Steve Parkin last week, according to a statement issued through his solicitor.

That behind the scenes activity came hot on the heels of the Geoffery Richmond saga. The former Bradford City chairman was put in charge of handling all player transfers and contracts only to depart the club days later.

Chairman Gerald Krasner, who has refused to confirm or deny receiving the Parkin bid, told fans the board wanted to be “judged by our actions” when his consortium took over the club and many fans are frustrated that all the action appears to be taking place behind closed doors.

The board came up with the plan of trying to raise money by selling 2000 20-year season tickets but, not surprisingly given the club’s finances, there has not been a rush to buy them.

Simon Jose, the founder of the Leeds United Independent Supporters Association, said: “It’s almost like the fans are being ignored, like we’re a minor annoyance rather than people that actually are an integral part of the football club.

“All we get is lip service – ‘the fans are important, the fans have been wonderful’. If that is how they feel, then they should treat us accordingly.

“But it just never seems to happen. It seems the attitude is: ‘Oh, they’re just working-class oiks who we can take money off’ and their way to raise finance is again to get money off us” (by attempting to sell 2000 20-year season tickets).

The Krasner-led consortium took control of the club last month when they completed a reported £22m (€33.1m) takeover and cleared £80m (€120.5m) of debts.

However, questions remain unanswered about how much of the consortium’s own money was behind the deal and whether part of the capital raised was a loan from property developer Jack Petchey.

Jose insists the club’s fans are craving stability after the profligacy of the Peter Ridsdale era, and called on the board to show their hand.

“The board’s argument right at the start was: ‘When we take over we will tell you our plans,’" he said.

“We wanted to know what their business plan was. For instance, if they had said: ‘One of our plans to raise money is to sell a 20-year season ticket,’ we could have told them immediately that that would not work.

“Even if we were in the Champions League people just don’t buy tickets for that long. It doesn’t happen.

“OK, they haven’t sold 2,000 20-year season tickets, so where are they going to make the money from they were expecting from that?

“Are they going to have sell more players? Have they got a list of players they want to sell? Are they speaking to Eddie Gray about which players to sell and which players to bring in? Are they going to bring any players in? This reported loan from Petchey, when is it due back, how much is it?

“They’re obviously astute businesspeople in their field, which is property development and insolvency, but they don’t seem to know much about football.

“Again, it’s people coming in, tinkering and playing with football clubs. There has to be complete transparency now, because we’re just fed up.

“To be blunt, the fans know more about running a football club than most people who are running football clubs. The club is just lurching from one iceberg to another.

“They’ve paid a lot of the debt off, which is one good thing, but the point is it’s no good if you’re left with a debt that puts you back into the same situation a few months down the line.”

Ray Fell, the chairman of the Leeds United Supporters’ Club, felt fans were prepared to give the board time to establish themselves, given that without their intervention the club may have been wound up.

“I am very mindful of the situation we were in when they took over,” he said.

“We were in trouble, we were on the verge of liquidation and at the moment most fans are still aware of the fact that they’ve kept us as a club. Their takeover made it a football club again as we saw it.

"We’re out of the plc and if nothing else the club is more viable.

“How we go from here, so far it’s early doors, Obviously we are all aware that something has been going on behind the scenes and there have been some changes already and last week there was talk of a possible takeover.

“We’re all waiting with baited breath to hear about that because it’s said that it’s fallen through, but there are rumours around and we’ll all wait and see if anything develops in the near future.

“The results haven’t helped the board much in the last couple of weeks and in all ways it’s going to be a start-again situation for the club.”