http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/may/03/leeds-united-ken-bates-owner So Ken Bates took Leeds into admin, wiped out the debt, hardly paid any money too the companies that were owed it then still remains the owner without ever risking any of his own money. How does that work? That would have saved Mr Allam ã40 million. Maybe he has more morals though?
Reading that story I came to the conclusion, that they have tied themselves in so many lies, that sooner or later the Fraud Squad will need to take a "serious" look into the dodgy dealings of these (ahem??) "gentlemen"!! If it looks like a pile of ****e, smells like a pile of ****e............................., then it probably is the biggest pile of ****e they have come out with, in all the Monaco-based owners, via Nevis in the West Indies, lifetime !!!!!
It's dodgy-looking, but Bates will have made sure everything under the previous regime was legit. Not sure the Football League will be bothered about investigating past owners of Leeds and they've already deemed Bates fit and proper to run our club, so I guess that's that. You can find my thoughts on the evil one's takeover on the Leeds board. If the Allams did the same as Bates, mind, they'd first have to undergo the point deduction, then sell the club to a faceless organization which they effectively still run from behind the scenes and then sell it back to themselves again. It would be an awful lot of hassle and all very unscrupulous stuff.
I'd take a 10 point penalty and a bit of hassle to save ã40 million if it was all deemed legal and ethical/moral. I don't think it can be though, I can't even see how it can be legal. Bates remained the Chairman and ran the club the whole time didn't he, how can that be allowed?
He remained Chairman, which is completely allowed, but wasn't the owner. The owner was Leeds City Holdings, run by the Forward Sports Fund, which was in turn run by a variety of trusts and shareholders. No-one publicly knows who those trusts and shareholders were except the Football League, who are confident it wasn't Bates. Hence the faceless puppet organization I mentioned in my previous post. It's possible within the rules to sell a club to such an organization then buy it back again. That's what Ken did, he's bought a majority shareholding in Forward Sports Fund, so he now administers Leeds City Holdings, and by implication Leeds United FC. Not sure about Hull's takeover or whether they could have done the same. One thing's for sure: if Allam had taken over Hull City, put them into administration, incurred a 10 point deduction and sold it to a faceless organization who he can't legally reveal is puppet-run by him, then it was revealed that the organization sold the club back to him, he'd have all sorts of **** thrown in his direction by Hull fans, the press and the Government's sports committee. It would look a lot more blatant than what Bates has done and he's had enough grief from those groups.
If you read the programme for the Palace game you will see that in Adam Pearson's notes he says that the Allam's auditors said that administration wasn't an option as the club had no assets and the only option would be liquidation of the club. Yes, he may be talking **** to make the Allam's option sound better, but I for one have no reason to doubt him as he is the one with intimate knowledge of the clubs finances and a fair amount of financial sense.
i know its easy to say as its not my money... but im happy the allams came in and paid off our debt 'properly'. we've had enough dodgy dealings going on in the past to last us a lifetime. finally some good honest people come in with good intentions at heart and save our club. i wouldnt want it done any other way but properly & honestly.
We'll see what the Premier League make of it if, God forbid, they were to go up. All ownership issues have to be discolsed in the PL, which means Mr. Bates will have to come out and state the facts
I don't think Bates now has any issues with the Premier League, he is now the declared owner. His problem may come if any of the old creditors decide to come after him, he's obviously on very dodgy ground.
