Ridsdale: 'I was not the only Elland rogue'

Former Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale is convinced he has been the victim of an Elland Road smear campaign.

It is now four and a half years since Ridsdale departed the club he supported as a boy, with many fans believing the £78m debt he left behind is the major reason why Leeds are currently languishing in Coca-Cola League One.

Yet while Ridsdale is now happy to accept his share of the responsibility for Leeds’ plight, he feels others, who were equally culpable, have escaped with their reputations intact.

He disputes totally the theory that financial troubles triggered their relegation from the Premier League in 2004 – long after he had been succeeded as chairman by Professor John McKenzie.

And he has now decided to speak out against McKenzie’s allegations of reckless financial behaviour, including the infamous goldfish expenditure.

“To suggest the biggest single mistake I made – and I made plenty – was to have two goldfish tanks, which cost £200 per annum, was just laughable,” said Ridsdale.

“Yet it became a signal of my extravagance and largesse. I am bemused by it. I actually think it was a deliberate part of a strategy to nail me to the floor.

“To my face, Professor McKenzie was very supportive. Then he started hammering me for the number of company cars we had, when the number he stated was twice what we actually had.

“I used to drive from home every morning and return every evening, when I wasn’t staying overnight, in my own car, and I was driving.

“Professor McKenzie was being chauffeur-driven to and from home. Nobody says a word about that.”

Ridsdale is so vilified within the West Yorkshire city that he is unable to publicise his account of life at Elland Road, ’United They Fall’, the proceeds of which will go to St Gemma’s Hospice, for fear of violence from disgruntled supporters.

However, while he does not expect that situation to change at any point in the near future, Ridsdale, now chairman at Cardiff, does feel if he had been allowed to get on with his job, the side who were in the Champions League semi-finals seven years ago would not be where they are now.

“I do not believe Leeds would be in League One if I had stayed,” he said

“People will probably think I am an arrogant so-and-so but I believe in being honest and straightforward.

“I have got nothing against the current management at all. I was very pleased when Ken Bates took over because he is steeped in football experience.

“But I also know Leeds did not get relegated out of the Premier League because of financial issues. If it was the case, why did they not start selling a load of players during the previous summer after I had left.

“When you look at the team they had available at that time, with the right football management they should have survived in the Premier League. Who knows what might have happened after that? Would we have been able to restructure the finances? I do not know.

“But it always makes me smile when people say financial issues stopped Leeds winning. Leeds stopped winning when they were top of the league.”

’United We Fall – Boardroom Truths About the Beautiful Game’, by Peter Ridsdale, printed by Macmillan, is available in all good bookshops and online at www. panmacmillan.com, priced £18.99.