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[Promotion 2010]

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Leeds could be left in administration unless Cellino miracle happens... and supporters can't even find respite on the pitch
By NICK HARRIS
PUBLISHED: 22:30 GMT, 29 March 2014 | UPDATED: 22:30 GMT, 29 March 2014
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The financial crisis engulfing Leeds United will lead to administration unless Massimo Cellino is given shock permission to take over or an alternative buyer is found imminently.
‘The club is a mess and there’s no pretty solution,’ said one insider on Saturday.
A 2-1 defeat to Doncaster at Elland Road in the Championship gave long-suffering fans no on-field respite from months of off-field fretting.

Leeds’ players received only partial payment of their March wages on Friday, highlighting the fear that owners GFH Capital are no longer able or willing to meet Leeds’ financial commitments

With convicted fraudster Cellino waiting to find out, probably tomorrow, whether his appeal to the Football League to be deemed ‘fit and proper’ to buy 75 per cent of the club from Bahrain-based GFH has been successful, the Mail on Sunday can reveal:
The cash used to pay the players on Friday was earmarked for an urgent tax bill that still needs paying
GFHC commissioned secret research into Cellino before selling to him â€" and knew he was unsuitable
Leeds managing director David Haigh hopes to put together a new consortium to buy the club if Cellino’s appeal fails
The ‘Leeds Together’ consortium of local businessmen-fans meet tomorrow to discuss their options
Leeds are more than £20million in debt, including at least £10.5m owed to GFHC in ‘owners’ loans’ and at least £6.5m to Cellino.
   
Failed: Cellino failed the fit and proper persons test because of unpaid repayments on a yacht
An anticipated pre-match mass demonstration outside the ground failed to materialise but fans inside were in defiant mood. One banner in the South Stand read ‘Keep Fighting’, mirroring the message Don Revie posted in the dressing room during his hugely successful years in charge in the 1960s and 70s.
Anger towards GFH was expressed as fans turned away from the pitch and bellowed: ‘Turn your back on GFH.’
Haigh, in attendance at the game with a bodyguard, has become a focal point for fan dissent because he was the ‘face’ of GFH’s takeover and became managing director under them. In an interview earlier this month, Haigh said there was ‘no chance whatsoever’ of Leeds entering administration. He added: ‘The club is not in any kind of precarious financial position. Either now or in the future .... can the company meets its debts, as and when they fall? Yes, Leeds United can.’
Failure to pay the players’ wages in full on Friday made a mockery of that and sources say the payment was from the ‘bottom of the barrel’ of club coffers.
   
Debt: The club is more than £20million in debt
There is a PAYE tax bill of around £800,000 due, and having had previous warnings about late HMRC payments, a winding-up order is a possibility if fresh cash is not found.
GFHC have known for months that Cellino was probably unsuitable, having commissioned a background dossier, code-named Project Athena, outlining past convictions. Obscure aspects of his business history were also covered, including his ownership of a ship aboard which seven Italian sailors were murdered by terrorists in Algeria in 1994.
Haigh, also a recent former deputy CEO of GFHC, is actively looking for backers to support a new bid, one source says. He was due to meet former owner Ken Bates for lunch on Friday, for advice and ‘a catch-up’, but cancelled and was instead intending to dine with Bates last night. Bates is understood not to be interested in funding a Haigh consortium.
   
Unpaid: Leeds players only received part payment of their wages on Friday
The ‘Leeds Together’ group, led by former Manchester United and Sunderland director Mike Farnan, want to convince GFHC to sell to them at an affordable price.
But with Leeds having debts that could be as high as £30m by now, and with Leeds Together wanting to pump cash into the club â€" not GFH â€" an impasse is likely.
Haigh himself was owed £1.9m in personal loans, though that has been reduced to £1.2m now.
   
Investment: Cellino has already put £6.5m of his own money into the club
While GFH privately insist they will not countenance administration, those familiar with their ‘desperate’ search for cash and an alternative buyer if Cellino’s appeal fails say it is increasingly likely.
‘GFH want out but nobody in their right minds would want in on their terms,’ a source said.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2592393/Leeds-left-administration-unless-Massimo-Cellino-miracle-happens-supporters-respite-pitch.html#ixzz2xRRNl8dZ
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[Jon R]

Noen er desperate? "LUFCDATA ‏@LUFCDATA 1 t

Mike Farnan, Together Leeds: "This club must not go into administration. We have the financial backing to take this club forward." #LUFC"

For å si det sånn:
Viss Cellino sin anke ikke går igjennom og Farnan ikke kjøper klubben før en admin, så er han en like stor løgner som Haigh.
Har ikke det minste tro på denne TL gruppen.

Enig. Hadde TL virkelig hatt disse midlene, ville vel GFH ha solgt til dem i stedet for Cellino. Synes TL's utspill i denne saken virker mer som egenmarkeringer.

Bevisst løgn i media altså, som han vil bli tatt for siden. Hva slags egenmarkering er det? En egensøknad om å bli rullet i tjære og fjær?

[Jon R]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2592393/Leeds-left-administration-unless-Massimo-Cellino-miracle-happens-supporters-respite-pitch.html

Brukt skattepenger til å betale lønn? Ja, ja...

Tæring etter næring!

GHF skal altså ha visst om at Cellino var "unsuitable" men inngikk allikevel avtalen? Og nå håper GHF på at et nytt konsortium vil kjøpe klubben dersom anken til C. ikke går i gjennom?

Flere enn meg som oppdaget minst 3 feil i argumentasjonen til denne kilden?

[Promotion 2010]

Vi er omgitt av spekulasjoner!   

[Stephenjazz]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2592393/Leeds-left-administration-unless-Massimo-Cellino-miracle-happens-supporters-respite-pitch.html

Brukt skattepenger til å betale lønn? Ja, ja...

Tæring etter næring!

GHF skal altså ha visst om at Cellino var "unsuitable" men inngikk allikevel avtalen? Og nå håper GHF på at et nytt konsortium vil kjøpe klubben dersom anken til C. ikke går i gjennom?

Flere enn meg som oppdaget minst 3 feil i argumentasjonen til denne kilden?

Det henger jo ikke sammen. Kan bare ikke  stemme at vi  har eiere som skal prøve  å selge til noen de vet, ikke kommer til å bli godkjent av FL.

[Leedsfan]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2592393/Leeds-left-administration-unless-Massimo-Cellino-miracle-happens-supporters-respite-pitch.html

Brukt skattepenger til å betale lønn? Ja, ja...

Tæring etter næring!

GHF skal altså ha visst om at Cellino var "unsuitable" men inngikk allikevel avtalen? Og nå håper GHF på at et nytt konsortium vil kjøpe klubben dersom anken til C. ikke går i gjennom?

Flere enn meg som oppdaget minst 3 feil i argumentasjonen til denne kilden?

Det er vel tidslinja som er viktig. Haigh hadde vel lyst på klubben selv, men når det gikk i dass så forandret alt seg. Uansett helt umulig å vite hva som har skjedd og hva som skjer, its a mess!

[sportcarl1]

alltså FL skiter totalt i denna klubben, och de kommer se till att det blir farnan även om det rent ekonomiskt skulle vara 10 gånger bättre med cellino, är säkert flera personer som lobbyat  för ett engelskt konsortium, känns äckligt detta och luktar engelskprotektionism

[Promotion 2010]

Bakke, denne gangen!

http://ipad.dagbladet.no/2014/03/30/sport/fotball/leeds_united/32561276/

[sportcarl1]

Bakke, denne gangen!

http://ipad.dagbladet.no/2014/03/30/sport/fotball/leeds_united/32561276/

bra artikel och jag delar bakkes åsikter

[Leedsfan]

Bakke, denne gangen!

http://ipad.dagbladet.no/2014/03/30/sport/fotball/leeds_united/32561276/

Bakke burde holde kjeft. Han var vel en av de siste som forsvant ut av porten sist gang vi var i uføre, ville klemme ut han kunne.

En klubb går nesten konkurs pga for store spillerlønninger og når man spør om de vil gå ned 10-20% i lønn for å redde klubben så nekter de...

[Jon R]

Bakke, denne gangen!

http://ipad.dagbladet.no/2014/03/30/sport/fotball/leeds_united/32561276/

Bakke burde holde kjeft. Han var vel en av de siste som forsvant ut av porten sist gang vi var i uføre, ville klemme ut han kunne.

En klubb går nesten konkurs pga for store spillerlønninger og når man spør om de vil gå ned 10-20% i lønn for å redde klubben så nekter de...

Ikke skriv sånn om Bakke da. Han er jo så hyggelig og dedikert i dag. 

Supportere glemmer lett....

[Leedsfan]

Bakke, denne gangen!

http://ipad.dagbladet.no/2014/03/30/sport/fotball/leeds_united/32561276/

Bakke burde holde kjeft. Han var vel en av de siste som forsvant ut av porten sist gang vi var i uføre, ville klemme ut han kunne.

En klubb går nesten konkurs pga for store spillerlønninger og når man spør om de vil gå ned 10-20% i lønn for å redde klubben så nekter de...

Ikke skriv sånn om Bakke da. Han er jo så hyggelig og dedikert i dag. 

Supportere glemmer lett....

Jeg glemmer aldri!

[Diof]

Ikke jeg heller!!

[RoarG]

Noen er desperate? "LUFCDATA ‏@LUFCDATA 1 t

Mike Farnan, Together Leeds: "This club must not go into administration. We have the financial backing to take this club forward." #LUFC"

For å si det sånn:
Viss Cellino sin anke ikke går igjennom og Farnan ikke kjøper klubben før en admin, så er han en like stor løgner som Haigh.
Har ikke det minste tro på denne TL gruppen.

Enig. Hadde TL virkelig hatt disse midlene, ville vel GFH ha solgt til dem i stedet for Cellino. Synes TL's utspill i denne saken virker mer som egenmarkeringer.

Bevisst løgn i media altså, som han vil bli tatt for siden. Hva slags egenmarkering er det? En egensøknad om å bli rullet i tjære og fjær?

Løgn i media er vel ingen nyheter? Ingen blir "rullet i tjære og fjær" for å ha slengt med leppa i media. Lei av alle wannabe-eiere som vet best, og som bruker Leeds som middel til egenmarkering. De kan betale eller holde kjeft.

[Sleivind]

Noen er desperate? "LUFCDATA ‏@LUFCDATA 1 t

Mike Farnan, Together Leeds: "This club must not go into administration. We have the financial backing to take this club forward." #LUFC"

For å si det sånn:
Viss Cellino sin anke ikke går igjennom og Farnan ikke kjøper klubben før en admin, så er han en like stor løgner som Haigh.
Har ikke det minste tro på denne TL gruppen.

Enig. Hadde TL virkelig hatt disse midlene, ville vel GFH ha solgt til dem i stedet for Cellino. Synes TL's utspill i denne saken virker mer som egenmarkeringer.

Bevisst løgn i media altså, som han vil bli tatt for siden. Hva slags egenmarkering er det? En egensøknad om å bli rullet i tjære og fjær?

Løgn i media er vel ingen nyheter? Ingen blir "rullet i tjære og fjær" for å ha slengt med leppa i media. Lei av alle wannabe-eiere som vet best, og som bruker Leeds som middel til egenmarkering. De kan betale eller holde kjeft.

Det er jo klart GFH ikke vil selge til TL. GFH har jo inngått en avtale med Cellino som sier at han skal betale for driften av klubben. Så det er jo klart at GFH ikke vil slippe noen andre til så lenge Cellino fremdeles er med i racet.

[RoarG]

Noen er desperate? "LUFCDATA ‏@LUFCDATA 1 t

Mike Farnan, Together Leeds: "This club must not go into administration. We have the financial backing to take this club forward." #LUFC"

For å si det sånn:
Viss Cellino sin anke ikke går igjennom og Farnan ikke kjøper klubben før en admin, så er han en like stor løgner som Haigh.
Har ikke det minste tro på denne TL gruppen.

Enig. Hadde TL virkelig hatt disse midlene, ville vel GFH ha solgt til dem i stedet for Cellino. Synes TL's utspill i denne saken virker mer som egenmarkeringer.

Bevisst løgn i media altså, som han vil bli tatt for siden. Hva slags egenmarkering er det? En egensøknad om å bli rullet i tjære og fjær?

Løgn i media er vel ingen nyheter? Ingen blir "rullet i tjære og fjær" for å ha slengt med leppa i media. Lei av alle wannabe-eiere som vet best, og som bruker Leeds som middel til egenmarkering. De kan betale eller holde kjeft.

Det er jo klart GFH ikke vil selge til TL. GFH har jo inngått en avtale med Cellino som sier at han skal betale for driften av klubben. Så det er jo klart at GFH ikke vil slippe noen andre til så lenge Cellino fremdeles er med i racet.

Og TL kan komme med uttalelser som ikke roer forholdene i klubben uten at det koster dem noe.

[Promotion 2010]

Spennende:

Phil Hay‏@PhilHayYEP·3 t
They're not showing up on Companies House's website yet but I'm told that #lufc's annual accounts for 12/13 have been filed.

[Promotion 2010]

Adam Pope‏@APOPEY·6 t
#lufc No steer re as to when result of Cellino's appeal revealed but PFA believe it, and the rest of players' wages, to be by end of week.

Adam Pope‏@APOPEY·1 t
#lufc Players are due to be paid 15% of wages today.




Dette kan bety:

1) At Cellino har fått tips om at han tar over

2) At det vil drøye til ut i neste uke

3) At GFH har klart å skrape sammen en delsum til i forhold til lønn (venter på nye investorer)

4) At GFH har lånt flere penger fra Ken Bates...

[Promotion 2010]

Eller et femte forslag:


Phil Hay‏@PhilHayYEP·1 t
The players at #lufc have today been paid 15% of the 50% wages they're owed. Not sure when the rest is coming.

Ashley Hughes‏@supercharv·56 min
@PhilHayYEP Where has that money come from? The match day tickets?

Phil Hay‏@PhilHayYEP·55 min
@supercharv very possibly the gate receipts from Tuesday

[Dennis]

Eller et femte forslag:


Phil Hay‏@PhilHayYEP·1 t
The players at #lufc have today been paid 15% of the 50% wages they're owed. Not sure when the rest is coming.

Ashley Hughes‏@supercharv·56 min
@PhilHayYEP Where has that money come from? The match day tickets?

Phil Hay‏@PhilHayYEP·55 min
@supercharv very possibly the gate receipts from Tuesday

Klubben lever utvilsomt fra hånd til munn.

[Jon R]

Farnan: Administrasjon inget alternativ! 

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/story/2014-03-31/cellinos-appeal-hearing-due-to-start/#mike-farnan-leeds-administration-not-an-option_345228

[Kontakinte]

Farnan: Administrasjon inget alternativ! 

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/story/2014-03-31/cellinos-appeal-hearing-due-to-start/#mike-farnan-leeds-administration-not-an-option_345228

Sympatisk kar.

[Asbjørn]

En kommentar i The Guardian - han har massevis av poenger om en klubb som ikke akkurat har blitt styrt bra fra toppen...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/apr/05/leeds-united-massimo-cellini-takeover?CMP=twt_gu

Leeds United is the story of how not to run a football club

Now convicted fraudster Massimo Cellino is free to take over at Leeds, what next for their long-suffering fans?
In happier times at Leeds, a genial old press officer by the name of Dick Wright used to tell a story about one trip when Lee Bowyer was having difficulties with the menu at one of the fancy hotels where the team was staying. Dick was the go-to man for the players back then, popular enough that Lucas Radebe wrote an obituary when he died last year, and he ended up recommending Bowyer tried the halibut steak.

Halfway through the meal, he noticed the player looking at his plate suspiciously. The chairman, Peter Ridsdale, was at the same table. "What's the food like, Lee?" he asked. "Umm, not bad," Bowyer replied, without sounding like he really meant it. A few mouthfuls later, he looked back up. "Dick," he said, "this steak's a bit fishy, isn't it?"

The laughter stopped at Elland Road a short time later, as the full effects of Ridsdale's overspending started to take hold. Dick was one of the first casualties, never mind the fact he probably earned less in a year than Seth Johnson did in a week. Then came the fire sale of players and the full-on, authentic crisis. Leeds had been so busy staring at the stars they hadn't noticed the lamp-post directly in front of them. It was some collision, and just a shame the bang to the head did not knock more sense into them.

The ripple effects are still being felt now. "I've never known a club like it," Kevin Blackwell, the manager fourth in line after David O'Leary, said a few years later. "If it can go wrong, it will go wrong." And here we are, coming up to 10 years since that quote, and the place is still foaming with frustration: the most irrational, eccentric, self-defeating, dysfunctional, implausible football club in the country. A club that seems hell-bent on turning incompetence into an art form. A club where every good idea feels like beginner's luck and the next lamp-post is always around the corner.

This season has been painfully typical and nobody can be entirely sure where it all leads now Massimo Cellino has successfully appealed against the Football League barring his takeover. On the one hand, Leeds have just opened their doors to a convicted fraudster, at a time when English football is supposed to be taking greater care about who it lets in. On the other, the alternative for Leeds was so unappealing most supporters had already aligned themselves with the new man anyway.

Cellino had said the club would go bankrupt without his input and even if that was just an emotional reaction it was certainly not a good sign that the players were going unpaid. Leeds were docked 10 points when they went into administration in 2007, and another 15 later that year because of the next phase of mismanagement. The relevant people always said the same would not happen again. It was, however, threatening to be a return to the days when supporters wore T-shirts saying: "2004 Premiership, 2005 Championship, 2007 Sinking Ship, 2008 Abandon Ship."

They won't expect your sympathy for everything that has happened since and, being Leeds, they probably won't get a great amount either. Yet I have never gone in for that hive-mind mentality that Leeds automatically have to be disliked. They matter. They are an important club and it puzzles me, putting together a list of all the pros and cons, that they have found it so difficult to attract serious, life-changing money from credible people without having to go through all this palaver.

They don't own their stadium. The training ground has been sold and the debts, haemorrhaging £1m every month, are an obvious and instant turn-off. But just consider what they do have going for them in a vibrant one-club city, with the third largest population in the UK, a huge catchment area (the Leeds City Region, the largest economy centre outside London, puts it at 3 million), international support and that sleeping-giant history. All sorts of other clubs, with less appealing selling points, have attracted the super-rich. Yet here are Leeds â€" once-mighty Leeds â€" asking players to defer their wages and pinning their hopes on a man who was described on an arrest warrant in Sardinia last year as having "marked criminal tendencies … capable of using every kind of deception to achieve his ends".


In ordinary circumstances, a sensible club would run a mile. These, of course, are not ordinary circumstances and, just like those Manchester City fans who happily made the most of Thaksin Shinawatra, nobody should be too surprised that a few Yorkshiremen do not seem too fussed about Cellino's history, as long as he is as loaded as everyone says.

All the same, the Football League's owners-and-directors' test is there, supposedly, to safeguard clubs and it is easy to understand why they wanted to pull down the shutters. It doesn't root out everyone, as the supporters of Portsmouth, Birmingham and a few others can testify, but there is a sound reason for its existence. And now an independent QC has ruled in Cellino's favour? They may as well rip it up and start again.

It was not the fact Cellino sacked 35 managers in 21 years with his hometown club, Cagliari, that was the issue. Nor that he once moved Cagliari's home games to Trieste, 500 miles away on the Italy-Slovenia border. It was that he had just been found guilty of tax evasion, to go with two previous convictions for multimillion-pound fraud. Of course, the league wanted to keep him out.

Cellino is certainly an unlikely saviour. He is also surprisingly naive, judging by the call he took last week from "a Leeds United fan, can we talk for two minutes?" and the ensuing warts-and-all debate about what he really thought of the club. "The team is shit," will give you a flavour. "The worst team I saw in my life." What he did not realise was that he was being recorded for an online show. But regardless of the rights and wrongs of that, how many people in football would spill their professional secrets to a stranger who had rung out of the blue and not even given a name?

Unfortunately, that fits in neatly with the club that Leeds have become. Former owners Gulf Finance House (GFH) were barely seen at Leeds this season. The players are still owed 35% of their salaries for March and a culture of extravagance clearly lives on. Not of Ridsdale-esque proportions, admittedly, but there are still times when Leeds come across like a gambler on a bad streak, jamming everything into the slot machines and hoping it will turn out OK. "A dangerous club, an expensive club," Cellino said. "Eighteen million on wages! For a shit team like that. You shouldn't spend £5m on wages. Not £18m."

He had a point. Leeds signed Noel Hunt from Reading last summer, on £25,000 a week according to Cellino, and the forward has not managed a single goal. They also paid £1m to sign Luke Murphy from Crewe â€" "I don't remember his name," Cellino said â€" and bumped him up from £1,700 a week to £22,000. "Are you f**king crazy?" Cellino asked.

Brian McDermott, the increasingly beleaguered manager, is probably in the best position to answer that â€" if he gets the time. He has already been sacked by Cellino once. GFH reinstated him immediately but Cellino has the power now and McDermott will not last long. All that can be said for certain is that he has tried to bring a bit of dignity into the equation. Someone had to.

Most of the others could do with having their heads banged together. Some people leave a mark on a football club. At Leeds, they tend to leave a stain. First Ridsdale. Then the unpleasantness of the Ken Bates era. Now GFH. It is the story of how not to run a football club, and it will be the thickest, heaviest book on your shelf. Their supporters might not expect our sympathy but they deserve it.

Sound of silence surrounding Sunderland is sure to cause suspicion

Heard the one about the north-east club who fielded an ineligible player by mistake and were automatically docked three points at a critical stage of the season?

Their name is Seaham Red Star, currently trying to win promotion from Northern League Division Two but punished because of a mixup concerning the forms for a loaned player. "Sometimes it's not just a wrong 'un but a right wrong 'un â€" a deliberate attempt at cheating," the league's chairman, Mike Amos, explained of the registration process. "On other occasions it's the result of an innocent and unfortunate mistake." Seaham, he said, definitely fell into the latter category, but the points deduction was mandatory because the alternative would "leave us too open to allegations of bias or worse".

A few miles away, Sunderland should just be grateful the relevant authorities take a different view after Ji Dong-won played in four Premier League games over a seven-week period without the club filing all the relevant paperwork.

Three of those games were defeats but the other was a 1-1 draw at Southampton. Ji also played in the Capital One Cup second-round tie at Milton Keynes Dons on the run that took Sunderland to the final. The Premier League, however, decided a six-figure fine was sufficient and Sunderland were in the semi-finals by the time the money was paid and everyone had agreed to keep schtum. The Football League had the power to banish them from the competition. They, too, went for the easier option.

It is not a particularly satisfactory story and we are still waiting for an official explanation about why the episode was deliberately hushed up. These things always tend to come out and now it is out it is easy to understand why so many other clubs are looking at this case through suspicious eyes.

Hartlepool, for one. No one was this generous, in 2010, when they fielded a player, Billy Liddle, without realising he should have been suspended and three points were deducted.

Sunderland have certainly got lucky and, to give him his due, at least Gus Poyet has not backtracked on his comments from 2010 that the opposition should be awarded the win in these cases. The interesting part is what happens if his team avoid relegation by, say, the point they won at Southampton. It is not a surprise that at least one of the other clubs down there are taking preliminary advice.

[Xern]

For å svare på temaet til dette foruminnlegget:

NEI

[Furu]

Tittelen kan endres til:

Var Leeds United på konkursens rand?

[RoarG]

Leeds må få orden på utgiftene, særlig når billettinntektene har falt.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/latest-whites-news/leeds-united-post-9-5-million-loss-1-6548303

[Promotion 2010]

Litt av et lederskap vi har vært utsatt for:

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/latest-whites-news/leeds-united-post-9-5-million-loss-1-6548303



Leeds United post £9.5 million loss

by Phil Hay

Published on the 08 April
2014
10:19


Sponsored by

Leeds United lost almost £10m in the 2012-13 financial year, the club’s accounts revealed today.


United posted an overall loss of £9.5m during a 12-month period which exposes the severity of the financial situation at Elland Road.

That bottom-line figure - recorded midway through Gulf Finance House’s first year as owner of Leeds and six months after the sale of the club by ex-chairman Ken Bates - was a huge fall from a profit of £317,000 in 2011-12.

Turnover at Leeds dropped from £31.8m to £28.5m, with gate receipts down by £2m and attendances reduced by almost eight per cent.

The club’s operating loss ran to a total of £11.6m but incoming transfer fees of £2m helped to ease the overall figure. United’s operating loss in 2011-12 was £3.3m.

More significantly, Leeds built up huge debts during the period between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013.

Close to £11.3m was loaned to the club by Brendale Holdings Limited, a Dubai-based company which is controlled by GFH.

The total amount owed to creditors at the end of June 2013 stands at more than £22m, underlining the situation Massimo Cellino stands to inherit at Elland Road.

The Italian is set to complete his 75 per cent buy-out of GFH this week and his deal with the Bahraini bank - agreed in January of this year - committed him to servicing around £24m of debt.

United’s position has weakened further since the middle of 2013, however, and Cellino faces a pressing fight to bring finances at Elland Road under control and ensure that United abide by the Football League’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

FFP rules allow a maximum loss of £8m for the current season and failure to comply with that limit could lead to a transfer embargo next January.

United’s accounts also contain other intriguing points. Money paid to club directors in 2012-13 totalled around £750,000, an increase from £312,000 the previous year. The accounts state that Bates did not take any fee but the highest-paid director received a salary of £265,449 and a bonus for the year of a staggering £440,000.

The accounts also confirm that between March 2013 and the end of the 2012-13 financial year, Leeds effectively had no majority shareholder.

They note that “Gulf Finance House sold more than 50% of their interest to various parties and so at the balance sheet date there was no controlling party.”

GFH subsequently bought back equity in December 2013, taking its stake to 85 per cent ahead of the sale of Leeds to Cellino.

The Football League is not thought to have been notified of those transactions at the time, and the apparent sale of shares in Leeds was raised by the governing body during Cellino’s protracted battle to buy the club from GFH.

Meanwhile, in November 2013, Sport Capital - the consortium who attempted to buy United from GFH before Christmas - made loans of £950,000 and £825,000 in the space of seven days, increasing the club’s liabilities further.

[Kato]

10 mill pund i minus, og ikke kakken bedre sportslig. Hadde vi nå enda kjøpt spillere for pengene?

[Sydhagen]

Er glad vi har fått Cellino slik at vi kan få orden på sakene.

[Kato]

Konkluderer med at vi har vært omtrent på konkursens rand en periode. Vi er berget, men frykter det hadde sett grusomt ut uten Cellino.