Thetownend.com

Oh dear..... good luck to them, I'd hate to see any club go under.

Apart from Leeds & Oxford Utd then yes, i agree.

And they cannot sign anyone while they are still in admin, due to a transfer ban.

So it's Leeds Yoofs next season then...

I don't want to see them go out of business but I'd love to see them drop like a stone into League 2!!!

Agreed.

I've been looking forward to this fixture for ages.  Lets have our fun, do the double on them this season and then laugh at their relegation.  8)

Not looking good is it............ :?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6277752.stm

I really hope its resolved by the start of the season.

we all hate Leeds, we all hate leeds....


How the mighty have fallen.

The Football League will NEVER stop Leeds United from starting next season just because they are in administration.  They don't have the balls to do it to a "big" club.  If it were a Barnet or Mansfiled Town however....

Yeah, sounds more like the Administrators trying to wriggle out of it and not looking after their creditors. Hmm, who does that sound like?

This is total scaremongering by the administrators who want to scare Customs into accepting Ken Bates' 8p/£1 offer.

The Football League have said nothing of the sort.

HMRC will not budge


FACT

Good on HMRC. I think Ken Bates has met his match this time.

Nobody is a match for them fella's

and if they think someone is trying to coerce them or force their hand they will dig their heels in deeper, rest assured

Yep, you're quite right, which is why this is a futile and foolish move by Leeds' adminsitrators.

All they'll say when Leeds cry "can't start the season" is "so what?"

Just been put up for sale by the administrators

No matter how much I hate Bates (and I do with an absolute passion) I feel for the fans

The issue for me is, at what price ????

If leaves the back door open for MasterBates then it is a fucking crime

Too true.

Their situation is dire and I wonder how long Wise will survive a post-Bates Leeds United.

i've got four pounds... almost five...

It just goes to show that companies won't let football clubs get away with murder just because they're football clubs. 8p in a pound is a derisory offer, and I'm sure HMRC would get more by liquidating the club's assets immediately.

But Lofty can sign players.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_2/default.stm

An almighty 3 players - Considering that he has double that number on trial doesn't bode well for the guy!

From Leeds Trust :

News Release 9th July 2007

Supporters Trust demands action.

The Supporters Trust today demands that KPMG takes action to ensure that a
fair bidding process is allowed for the ownership of Leeds United and so
that the fans can retain what little confidence remains in KPMGs handling of
the clubs affairs.

A spokesman for the trust said: "The Supporters Trust is demanding that KPMG
take the following essential steps in order to ensure that all potential
bidders get a reasonable opportunity to bid for ownership of our football
club.
KPMG scrap the ludicrous deadline that is set for 5pm today, just as they
scrapped the unnecessary deadlines which they had previously tried to
impose.
Allow time for a proper bidding process to be undertaken by interested
parties and state clearly and publicly what that process is.
To provide full information to allow bidders to know EXACTLY what they are
buying and to ensure that their actions do not have the effect of
suppressing or reducing the amounts that interested parties are able to bid
due to the additional risk factors which have now been introduced.
To produce the Receipts and Payments ledger that is a requirement by law -
to show to the interested parties.
Clarify and guarantee the position on debtors and stock to all interest
bidders so that bidders to not have to factor-in a new £10 million pound
potential black hole
Confirm to the fans and the interested bidding parties that bids will not
simply be revealed to any other interested party in order to enable them to
play a trump card.

If KPMG are unable to guarantee fair play then they should step aside.

The spokesman said: "We believe it is vital that the fans are given a public
guarantee from KPMG and Walker Morris that the season ticket money would be
handed over to any new owner of the club, whoever they may be, as it is fans
money that has been paid into the club".

The Trust invites Leeds supporters and football fans everywhere to make
their feelings known. The spokesman added: "We have put a facility on our
website to allow fans to give us comment and feedback which we will collate
and pass to the relevant bodies".
To use this facility please go to http://www.lufctrust.org ". Please let
The Football League, Members of Parliament, KPMG, and the Trust know your
views by using this facility.

Lastly, the Trust has made a public appeal for the Football League to be
proactive in seeking ways to help our club find a way forward and out of
this situation. If the club and KPMG are unable to provide accounting
information then we ask the League to consider using its powers to examine
the books of the club without further delay. Our plea is that should any
wrongdoing be uncovered by any party then the focus is firmly on the
wrongdoers and nothing is considered which would have the effect of
punishing the ordinary football fans of this club.

Those trust busybodies should shut up and let KPMG continue to ruin the club.

Agreed. Nothing to do with the busybodies

I think I’m starting to really grasp the dilemma every good Administrator must face.  Do I screw the people I’m charged with looking after or the man that’s paying my wages?

Good luck to Leeds if they go under I fucking owe my mate a grand bet back if we don’t play them this season and that’s already been pissed up and down the walls of Krakow.  

Bates is a cunt a well isn’t he?  Never really done an awful lot in the game except ride the coat tails of other individuals and clubs success.  Without Harding they’d probably still be running round with Labatts written on their shirts and prior to the Russian mafia he managed to take Chelsea fairly fucking close to the nail debt wise.  Off with his head.

shoot the fucker

Indeed

also, let's not forget that he looks a lot like harold shipman.

All sounds rather familiar....

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

apparently the redbus bid was totally blind: they don't know what assets they'll get if they win, they don't know if they'll get the season ticket money, or even how much the season ticket money is anyway.

bates, meanwhile, knows everything. hardly a fair bidding process is it?

What assetts Leb...they like us dont own their ground if my memory serves me right. Owned by the council i think.

i thought leeds/bates bought it back quite recently?

i might have just imagined that though

he tried - but the creditors weren't happy that he was only proposing to pay back 8p for every pound owed.

There was a BBC report about Leeds last night, and they showed a film with him taking with the letters 'GIT' in big letters behind him.

Very apt.  :D

Why do you think that the Administrators gave bidders such a small bidding time.

Announced late on Friday, with the deadline of 5pm Monday...one working day.

Just to add to the chaos at Leeds.  Least its a personal fine rather than club fine.

Why, was he naked?

and he thought he had saved roberts' holiday money !

Leeds United has been resold to former owner Ken Bates for an undisclosed sum.
The move comes five days after Leeds' administrators, KPMG, said they were selling the club because of a legal challenge from HM Revenue & Customs.
HM Revenue & Customs had mounted a legal bid to block Mr Bates' earlier attempt to buy back the club and give its creditors just 8p in every £1.
It is currently unknown how much of Leeds United's £35m debt Mr Bates now intends to pay off.
KPMG had earlier said that unless the club was able to leave administration, the Football League may not let it start the season.

Sounds like a snow job to me.

KPMG sold it back to Bates as he was the highest bidder?

Yet he was only offering 8p in the £?

What a load of bollocks.

Be interesting to see what HMRC's next move will be.

according to sky sports news, there were 3 bids, 1 of which was conditional.

also, i note that sky sports news reporter alex hammond is now called alex quinn. i hope her newly married status doesn't diminish her undoubted tipping ability on the gee gees.

and leeds owe town £100, 000 as town are counted as a creditor in this case. Looks like bates will be shafting town if that gets written off.

wasn't it mentioned somewhere that football debts have to be paid in full or the FA start to get real cross like? I think Mark Devlin came along and said something about it.

it's just been announced that the football league have denied leeds their "golden share" (which is basically their football league membership) until they have seen satisfactory documentation about ken bates' takeover.

got to feel for the fans, i wouldnt wish ken bates on anyone.

take that ken you old fucker! as lebowski says you have to feel for the fans

Especially as they have sold over 10,000 season tickets already.

Talking of season tickets Bradford have dropped their price to something stupid like £138 and sold about 7,000! Lower than conference outfits I think.  It was on the news last night.

i saw that a while back stfclady. you have to applaud bradford (the REAL bcfc) for doing that, very brave, and almost visionary. did it say how many they were hoping to sell?

I'm pretty sure they said they had sold something stupid like 7000 and then there was a mention that apparently Swindon town were the only club to have sold more than that  :?   Since when have we ever sold more than around 3000 unless they're referring to many moons ago of course......

Just had a look, sold 7300 expecting to sell 10,000  incredible.

might have been done im the prem season, but they soon fucked off when times got hard  :roll:

Couldn't have been prem season as they wouldn't surely compare a newly relegated league two outfit with prem sales previously.  I think this could be one for Reg as prob may have been a bit before my time.

Latest:


League Board Considers Leeds Share Transfer

At its meeting in London today, the Board of The Football League considered the reported sale of Leeds United by its administrators, KPMG.
To date, no documentation regarding the sale has been submitted to The League by the administrators. Notwithstanding this, the Board was asked by the reported purchasers to consider an application to transfer Leeds United's share in The Football League to them.
The Board was unable to consent to this request this morning. Instead it has requested, from the administrators, certain required documentation and assurances regarding the sale of the club. The Board also requires certainty on the current legal proceedings surrounding the administration.
The Board had been expecting the administrators to attend today's meeting, as KPMG originally requested. However, The League was informed late yesterday afternoon that they would not be attending, with no explanation provided.
Additionally, the Board expressed concern at the handling of the whole process by the administrators and the Chairman was instructed to obtain legal advice in that regard.
Clearly any further delays in this process will be frustrating for Leeds supporters. However, like the club's fans, the Board recognises the pressing need for certainty regarding the future of League football in Leeds and has agreed to convene at the earliest opportunity to re-consider the share transfer, once it has been provided with all the relevant information.
Also, for the avoidance of doubt, The League would like to make it clear that there is nothing in its regulations to prevent a club beginning a new playing season whilst in administration.

indeedy

They were comparing Bradfords season ticket sales with our average gate last season in League 2.  It now almost definite they will have more season ticket holders than our average gate for the season last year.  They've had to open up a part of a stand they've had closed for a few years.

We sold over 10,000 season tickets in 93/94 from memory, then just over 4000 in 94/95 I think.  Bradford sold something like 13000 in the Prem and 8000 in the Championship when they returned.  It was noted that this has since dwindled every year.

Cheers Rob, I didn't catch the whole feature to see what it was being compared to!

Should be a great atmosphere though for a league two match.

Just goes to show the glory supporters eh, id have thought more than 4000 after going down, werent we one of the favourites to go back up?  :?

I think Bradford were originally aiming for 7,000 but it looks like they might do better than that.

Haviong said that, it may not mean they get 10,000 at every game. People who can only get to 10 games a season will just buy one because it works out cheaper....and their seat will be empty half the year

We sold 12000 in 93/94. Because the Oldham game at home had a lower attendance than our number of season ticket holders! Our capacity was supposed to be limmited to 19000 that year, but some games the actual attendance was a lot higher.

I remmember Fantasy Football League taking the piss out of out crowds in 1994/5, had pictures of McMahon walking out into an empty ground and stuff. I think our support changed dramatically after the Premiership, then again in 2000, in terms of people packing it in. Whereas last season it didnt seem so bad, the relegation didnt change our support much.

Bradford just shows what might happen if the game becomes less motivated by GREED. Greek greed in our case.

Its a huge gamble by Bradford. Yes they will get a lot of money upfront but what about the monthly cash-flow? Most fans in the ground would have paid outright for their ST and Bradford will have to budget that over the season.

They are doubling their season ticket sales though, this the 50% reduction is covered.  They predict 10,000 is now possible, meaning approx £1.3m in season ticket sales and big crowds.  if they get off to a fairly good start then they have a huge bandwagon already in place.  Cracking idea, and they researched it first by polling fans before the end of the season, around 7000 confirmed they'd do it which persuaded them to give it a go.

Add in the security of knowing about 10000 people will be there each home game, buying food, merchandise etc.

Charlton are giving their season ticket holder free renewals if they get promoted this season.

Very interesting article....

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/07/27/leeds_united_the_unanswered_qu.html

Leeds United: the unanswered questions
With Leeds fans and players still in limbo, David Conn and Matt Scott pose 20 questions about the troubled club.

The Football League said yesterday it has received further details from the administrator, KPMG, about the sale of Leeds United to a new company, Leeds United 2007 Ltd, owned by the Cayman Islands-registered Forward Sports Fund and chaired by Ken Bates.

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) agreement of creditors. In all, 41 other Football League clubs have collapsed into insolvency since the Premier League was formed in 1992, and in every previous case, the League has insisted on a CVA being agreed as a condition of transferring its golden share to the new owners.

Ken Bates is now asking the League to treat his company as an exception. Leeds United is at an impasse, with KPMG having sold the assets to the new company, but the League insisting that the players' registrations are still held by the old company until the golden share is transferred to a new owner. As doubts still hang over the club's future, David Conn and Matt Scott pose 20 significant questions about the ownership and running of Leeds, KPMG's handling of the administration, and what happens now.

1 Why did Leeds collapse into insolvency and administration in the first place, with debts of £35.5m, given that Ken Bates, and his solicitor and fellow Leeds United director Mark Taylor, had said during 2006-07 that the club would be in a dramatically better financial position once the season was over and the contracts of high-earning players would come to an end?

2 How did Leeds come to owe £17.7m to three offshore companies, Astor Investment Holdings (registered in the British Virgin Islands), Krato Trust (Nevis Island, the West Indies), and the owner of the club, Forward Sports Fund (the Cayman Islands), and how did the club spend that money?

3 Why was KPMG in such a hurry to sell Leeds United immediately back to the new company, which is also owned by the Forward Sports Fund and chaired by Bates, for 1p in the pound, when the administrators of other clubs have spent months running clubs and publicly seeking the best possible deal for creditors?

4 Who are the owners or beneficiaries of the Forward Sports Fund, Astor Investment Holdings and Krato Trust, and why have they chosen to register their companies in offshore tax havens where they are not legally required to declare their identity?

5 If Leeds United's owners are the anonymous people behind the Forward Sports Fund, how can the Football League be satisfied they pass its "fit and proper person test"?

6 Why have Astor and Krato agreed to waive any repayment of their huge debts so long as the club was re-sold to Forward and Bates, arguing, according to Taylor, that they had faith in the management of the club?

7 Leeds United's 2006 accounts stated that Astor did have "an interest" in the Forward Sports Fund, then at the creditors meeting on June 1, Taylor stated that the interest had been severed last December. How was this done, why, and what evidence was given of it to KPMG?

8 Why was the previous connection between Astor and Forward not mentioned in KPMG's first report to creditors, nor any explanation given of how the connection had been severed?

9 The 2006 accounts also stated that Patrick Murrin, the former Guernsey accountant, Chelsea director and representative of the large, anonymous offshore shareholding in Chelsea during Bates' time in charge, had "an interest" in the Forward Sports Fund. What is Murrin's interest in Forward?

10 The 2006 accounts stated that a company of which Murrin is a shareholder, Rivoli Limited, also registered in Nevis Island, had been paid £186,000 in "consultancy costs" during the year. What consultancy services did Murrin, and Rivoli Ltd, provide to Leeds United Football Club during 2005-06?

11 Why did KPMG allow Forward's and Bates' new company to receive the money for Leeds United season tickets - the company agreeing to refund the money if the club went bust - even though the company has not, still, been granted Football League membership, in apparent contravention of FA rules?

12 How has the money, around £4m, received from the 10,000 season tickets which the club say they have sold to their long-suffering fans, been used?

13 KPMG says it did "extensive work" to verify the claims of money owed to Leeds United creditors, while HM Revenue and Customs challenged the CVA, which narrowly approved the first sale, on the grounds of "material irregularities", arguing partly with the levels of debt claimed. So how much investigation did KPMG carry out into the club's debts?

14 Why did the club owe their own company Yorkshire Radio, of which Bates and Taylor are also directors, £480,000, and why was this debt first revealed only in the final voting at the creditors meeting, not in the initial statement of debts issued by KPMG?

15 When KPMG responded to HMRC's legal challenge to the CVA by announcing it was selling the club again, this time without going through a CVA, why did it give bidders less than three working days to make their offers, and no access to detailed financial information?

16 On what basis did Bates and Forward win the bid for the club the second time, and how did their offer beat those of other bidders, and why did KPMG agree to sell the club without being satisfied that the League would grant this company the "golden share" membership of the League?

17 Why has Forward's and Bates' new company not paid the players for the month of June?

18 What did KPMG actually sell to Forward's and Bates' new company if, as the League insists, players' registrations remain with the old company until any new company is awarded the "golden share"?

19 Why have Bates and Taylor apparently not yet obtained the permission of a court to act as directors of the new Leeds United Football Club Ltd, as required by s216 of the Insolvency Act, because both were directors of a company with the same name, which went into liquidation last year?

20 Why should the Football League make an exception for Leeds and grant Forward's and Bates' new company its "golden share" of membership despite the purchase not having been done via a CVA, given that the League has insisted on the CVA process for all 41 of its other clubs which have fallen into insolvency since 1992?

And we thought we had 'issues'  :shock:

My wife is a 'long suffering Leeds fan'  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: