One of the biggest bugbears for Leeds United fans is that the club are playing in a stadium that they do not own, akin to going out in someone else’s borrowed clothes.
The stadium itself was sold 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.”
Recently The72 reported on the fact that former-Leeds MD David Haigh, in the second excerpt from his TV Yorkshire interview, said that the wheels were in motion to buy back Elland Road as part of the failed Sports Capital bid to buy Leeds United. Now Haigh has shed a little further light onto that scenario – talking about the arrival of Massimo Cellino and hypothesising just why he may not want to buy back Elland Road.
When asked about the serious intent and means that groups had to buy the club before Massimo Cellino came on the scene, Haigh made his views pretty clear. Speaking in reponse to this question, Haigh said: “[There were] none. I mean there was Sports Capital which, for whatever reason, hadn’t worked. But I can’t talk too much about that as it’s part of an ongoing case where Sports Capital is suing GFH for £33m. But, Massimo…when you say ‘serious’, i mean that someone who had the money, could do it and wasn’t going to take a year or two. Massimo.”
Haigh then spoke about the sitation of GFH holding a minority share in Leeds and how this could very well be holding back Cellino’s thinking about buying the stadium back from the current consortium that own it now. On this point, Haigh says quite clearly: “Are GFH stopping Massimo from being able to purchase the stadium. Yeah, because you know why would he purchase it if they go however many percentage that they own?”
Haigh goes on in this part of the interview to basically say that GFH would love a repurchasing of Elland Road as that would give them a greater foothold in the club, more leverage as such, with the stadium’s value coming to be seen as a profitable investment for the Bahraini-based investment bank. This series of events would make them even more unlikely to want to relinquish their grasp at Leeds United.
In an ideal world, Leeds United fans would like rid of GFH, rid of Massimo Cellino and what many consider his toxic influence at the club and a return of stability to all areas at Elland Road.
However, the world isn’t ideal and Leeds fans will likely have to wait a little longer for these events to play themselves out.
