Leeds Banter Archive March 06 2014

06 Mar 2014 22:51:09
Apparently Carson Yeung reduced his ownership of Birmingham City to 29.9% prior to his 4 convictions for money laundering and he sold his other shares to a company whose headquarters are apparently the same as a UK PO Box.

Rumour has it that the FL are not investigating this "PO Box" company any further and are happy to let a convicted money launderer to effectively own and influence the running of a fellow Championship club.

I know that rules are rules and you have to draw the line somewhere, but surely the FL know exactly what is going on at BC.

Yet at our beloved LUFC, the FL appear to be waiting for the outcome of an argument with Italian officials regarding a US registered yacht and their claims over unpaid import duty solely because the owner of the yacht is Italian.

It amazes me why things over the last 10 years have never been straight forward for Leeds fans.

Jeff - have you got any further insider info on this that you would like to share with us? I did ask John Fitz last week what was going on but he only tried to sell me a North Sea trawler on the cheap as long as I didn't sail it outside of UK waters.

Keep the faith, MOT

Yeung was already in charge when the charges were brought against him so nothing can be done about him by the FA as he was already in charge. The fit and proper test is not retrospective and cannot be applied once the chairman is in place. Listening to a popular sports news program this morning they have said the FA's hands are tied as they can't force him to sell and they can't deduct points or fine Birmingham as there own rules don't allow this. Yeung has also stepped down from the club so basically on paper he doesn't have anything to do with the running of the club. This is completely different to the case with Leeds and your post is another of the conspiracy theory posts that the FA hate us. If they truly hated Leeds and wanted rid of us they would have done that under Bates's rein. Cellino has been charged with braking the law in Italy, as some posts have said what he has done would probably be legal here but he has broken the law in Italy, so he has to go to court and until that is resolved then the FA can't let him become a chairman of any football club with possible convictions for money related crimes. Please will people stop with the "The FA hate us" stories, it is the fault of our club that they keep having to penalise us as we have had a list of terrible owners in the past couple of decades who have run the club badly. Did the FA put Risdale and Bates in charge. Did the FA force them to mismanage the money at the club and plunge us into massive debt. Did the FA force Bates to put Leeds back into administration so he could buy the club back on the cheap and make a lot of the debt mysteriously disappear. The answer to all this is no. All the FA have done is apply there rules and penalise us when we have broken them. Yes some of these penalties were quite harsh and quite large but I think that the FA wanted to make a stand and stop the run of clubs who saw administration as an easy route out of debt and unfortunately we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think if any other club would have been in administration at that time they would have been penalised and not us, it just happened to be us at the time they wanted to make a point not a hate campaign against us!

06 Mar 2014 21:32:19
Not sure am I alone in this but to me its not all about winning leagues, cup etc. Its about being LEEDS! Best time of my LEEDS life was back in the so called dark eighties when we were struggling in league 2 but had good young players and played good football. rubbish crowds most of the time but a willingness amongst all to get back to great times. Sheridan, Baird, Day, Sellars, Aspin, Adams, and great ex players as managers made everything just right. Gray and Bremner could of been great managers with a bit of luck but somethings just aren't meant to be. If you can think back. We played some great football even though we never made it, back in the 80s. MOT

Totally agree mate. Stood in the Kop as a teenager every home game for £3.50 with players who played their hearts out. They played some great true grit footy at times and I have my fondest memories of those years. Little Tommy Wright scored bags for us one year and I really thought he was going to be great. Some of the players I remember form those days of my youth are Lukic, Irwin, Sellars, Sheridan, Bairdy, Mcluskey, Aspin, Barnes, Butterworth, and Andy Ritchie na na na! Bring back standing terraces! PA

Scott sellars was a gifted player, if he not for injuries he could have been something special. Sheridan was class, really gutted when we sold him.
Happy days.

That was a good time to watch leeds in the 80's used to go home and away good times some good players who played with pride and not for the money or fast cars problably just fast women.

Jesus Aiden Butterworth there's a name from the past. Thought he was going to be next big thing! Think he quit football to study. Nit sure he would do the same now!!

06 Mar 2014 17:55:45
So the tax case is heard on the 18th, but is there any chance it could be adjourned to a later date and would that mean the takeover be put back Aswell, ed any help

{Ed003's Note - I just read today it is expected to take one day that's all I've seen mate sorry.}

I would suggest, that although the press are claiming that the football league will delay their decision til after MC's case is heard. This is surely illegal, and not in the spirit of innocent until proven guilty, I believe both MC and GFH would have a right to recourse if this happens. If someone who knows more about the law can correct me then please do so, but I think they're on dodgy ground if they delay.
CH

Having paid attention to the meredith kerecher case and silvio ac milan bunga bunga berlusconi I feel that we have nothing to fear about a yacht!

The 'innocent until proven guilty' thing is for criminal cases. the FL test is a civil regulation of a governing body and the rule states that you cannot pass the test if there are outstanding criminal prosecutions taking place.
Having said this, the outstanding case is only relevant if MC has more than 10% of shares of Eleonara (I have read he doesn't) or if he's a Director (again I have read he isn't) or if he's a "Shadow Director" (which is hard to prove and could certainly be open to challenge). So even if he was found guilty, he could still argue that he's not a Director or Shadow Director and therefore the conviction wouldn't be relevant to Eleonara's takeover anyway. Because it is the company (Eleonara) and not MC that is actually buying Leeds.
Cheers, Norm
PS I know I'm boring but I am right

It is Cellino's lawyer who says it will only take a day because he is convinced it is an obvious not guilty. The judge might not agree!

06 Mar 2014 17:46:20
BMcD will not sighn anybody before weekend- radio interview
Apn-ing 63

As much as I admire and support BMcD; don't think so!

06 Mar 2014 14:54:28
Ed (or anyone) if the Cellino take over falls through will GFH be in debt to Cellino or will he simply just lose the money?

He gave the club the money as a loan and if fails to buy the club will get all his cash back plus 10% extra

Big gamble on cellinos part. If club goes into administration he could get nothing or a small percentage of what he has put in.

With regards to administration, this would depend if he lent the club "as a business" the money or to gfh or a private individual
hes a smart guy I don't think he'd risk millions

06 Mar 2014 13:53:56
Hate to say it when we desperately could do with the money but I don't think that Cellino is the right man to be our chairman. There seem to be a lot of stories about him having dodgy financial practices and also various fraud and tax evasion charges being put against him. While a lot of this might be complete b*****ks I think there is a grain of truth in most of them (you don't just randomly accuse someone of fraud and tax evasion unless you have some sort of proof) and to me he seems to be worse than KB. I think a lot of fans are seeing that he has a lot of money and looking at him with rose tinted specs but I have a feeling he would be bad for the club, remember KB said he had lots of cash to spend when he took over and look what happened there. I hope to be proved wrong but just can't shake the negative feelings I have about him.

You may be right but it seems to me that there is a lot more that you can be accused of in Italy, that wouldn't be criminal over here. The boat thing is similar to Jimmy Carr and his tax avoidance, maybe not moral but not illegal. Italy as a whole is more corrupt as their politicians show year in year out, what businessman doesn't try to avoid costs and taxes where possible, what about cash in hand tradesman that we all pay. What about our politicians and their expenses, the phone hacking, the bankers bonuses, PPI, rigged tv show phone ins, need I go on? I think he is probably very cute when it comes to money and won't pay what he doesn't need to, but who doesn't do that. doesn't make him a crook, let's give him the benefit of being like the rest of us, save it where you can. Hope he wins and his money gets us promoted and back where we belong.

Why would he be bad
i would stop pay tax on my wages if I could
he must just exploit loop holes like every business does or tries to
he's better than the last couple of owners we have had who are all just as dodgy but with no money
at the very least he's going to try and get us to the premiership to see his asset grow

"tax evasion". it is every mans duty to avoid tax. Tax is theft. Why must the govt steal from the workers to pay the unemployables? I evade tax all the time. Good on Cellino if he does too.

Tax Evasion is illegal, Tax Avoidance is a legal way of evading tax!
Just ask the Sole Traders at Methil in Fife, who have had their legal right to be sole traders taken from them.
FREEEEEDOMMMMMMM!!

06 Mar 2014 10:23:02
To all the guys (rightly) worried about this boat tax thing, remember this like I've said in the past Cellino isn't a stupid man buying our club on a whim he knows what he's doing, he wouldn't have pumped all this money in (coz let's be fair we all know its him funding these signings and paying wages) if he was even the slightest bit worried he wouldn't get approval. He was plenty of money but he's still not one to splash it around if he thinks its on something he won't get. I could be very wrong but I've got a feeling he knows what he's doing and he's confident of getting our club anyway he see possible. He could easily have walked away with all the crap that's happened but I think he's got us in his heart already

Cellino could be totally innocent of all charges, but how long will it take to prove his innocence? It could drag through the courts for months on end.
And leave ownership issues in limbo

I suppose he could buy it in his sons name if there was a problem that coud'nt be solved. he is without doubt the best chance we have got of a return to former glories

Have I misunderstood FL rules? Don't they clearly say that pending legal cases cannot be used to disqualify someone as an owner or director?

To last post. Think you might be wrong but I'm not sure either. However I would have thought that when the Yorkshire Rippers case was pending I think he would have failed the test.