http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/27/leeds-united-mystery-owners
Leeds United may be forced to come clean over the ownership issue
. Premier League and Championship to standardise rules
. Promotion could force Leeds to remove smokescreen
The Guardian, Tuesday 27 April 2010
Leeds United had thought only promotion to the Premier League would require
a full disclosure of ownership. Photograph: Christopher Thomond
If it's not quite up there with the existence of the Loch Ness monster, for
some Leeds United fans it is not far off. The mystery of who owns their club
could finally be solved this summer, if the team gain promotion.
It had been assumed that Leeds, sitting in an automatic promotion place in
League One, would not have to reveal the identity of the shareholders in the
offshore companies that make up their ownership structure unless they
returned to the Premier League.
But a Premier League proposal for the Football League to align the
Championship's rulebook with its own, as part of a package that will deliver
a new deal on parachute and solidarity payments, could see the Leeds
chairman Ken Bates required to do so far sooner. The Football League, which
has satisfied itself that the club's owners are "fit and proper" but does
not require them to be named, is likely to put the plan to its clubs at the
annual meeting in June.
The Guardian has highlighted the issue of opaque ownership in a campaign
backed by MPs and supporters' groups. The Premier League's offer will
increase parachute payments from £23.4m over two years to £48m over four and
"significantly" increase the solidarity payments shared between other
Football League clubs.
It also wants to standardise rules with clubs in the Championship. That
would require all those with shareholdings above 10% to be revealed on that
club's website. The Football League's chairman Greg Clarke, in talks with
the Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore over the package from
2010 to 2013, said on getting the job that he had "a propensity to think
that transparency is a wonderful thing". This may be his chance to prove it.
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