Ex-Leeds United MD and one-time potential investor in the club David Haigh has given a no-holds barred interview with TV Yorkshire entitled ‘David Haigh: GFH, Leeds United and Me’, an interview that is being released as a number of self-contained episodes.
The second episode in the series where Haigh opens up on the petulance of GFH, the need to go cap-in-hand to former Leeds owner Ken Bates to ask for money and also how the then-Leeds owners broke the agreed exclusivity agreement with investors Sports Capital.
However, towards the end of the interview, Haigh opened up on one thing that is always both a bone of contention and also a a signal of intent to Leeds United fans – the issue of Elland Road itself.
During Leeds United’s helter-skelter downfall and financial meltdown in the early 2000s, the Whites first sold their stadium of Elland Road to businessman Jacob Adler in 2004, with the businessman then leasing it back to the club. In 2006, the Guardian announced that it then had been sold along to Teak Trading Corporation, based in the British Virgin Islands.
In this article, then-United chief executive Shaun Harvey said: “We can confirm that the change in ownership in relation to Elland Road actually took place in excess of 15 months ago.”
“The change of ownership has no material effect on Leeds United as we still have the same lease as originally entered into, albeit with a different company.
“More importantly, the buy-back provision has also been transferred.”
However, when talking to TV Yorkshire in the aforementioned interview, David Haigh touches on the subject of Elland Road ownership, a subject that has become the Holy Grail of subjects to Leeds United fans.
Speaking about the failed Sport Capital consortium bid, that he was a major part of, Haigh spoke of just how close they were to bringing Elland Road back to the fans – bringing ‘Church’ home to its worshippers. On the topic, Haigh said to TV Yorkshire:
“The actual acquisition of the stadium. The lawyers had been appointed. The draft notices to acquire the stadium had been sent. This was happening. There’s a lot of ‘Oh you know David was just releasing that to the media’; that’s not true. The financing was there to get the stadium, the money was there – the administration of the legalities had been done.”
What wrecked the sale was GFH’s meddling and intentional breaking of the exclusivity granted to Haigh’s Sport Capital group with Haigh saying that: “Behind the scenes Hisham and the people in GFH were completely breaking the exclusivity agreement,” with the Bahraini investment bank courting outside interest.
