Post by hartebeat on Feb 15, 2005 5:59:31 GMT -5
The Serious Fraud Office and West Yorkshire Police have been ordered to investigate the financial shenanigans at Leeds United, according to a report.
The Sunday Times claims that, following the DTI commission of a report into the management of the club by insolvency expert Brendan Guilfoyle, secretary of state Patricia Hewitt referred the matter to the SFO and the police. The SFO have now ‘approved a full-scale report.’<br>
Upon undertaking the report, Guilfoyle stated: “I will look at the conduct of current and past directors to see if they are fit to be directors.”<br>
While the Sunday Times adds that ‘there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing’ on the part of Peter Ridsdale, the chairman of Leeds at the height of its financial mayhem, it’s believed that the SFO inquiry will focus on events up until March 2003. Their reports fails to note that, coincidentally, Ridsdale finally resigned as Leeds chairman on March 31 2003.
It’s thought the SFO will specifically probe the transfers of Robbie Fowler to Man Citeh and Rio Ferdinand from West Ham in 2000.
The Ferdinand deal was subject to a previous internal inquiry at Leeds after Ridsdale authorised a £900,000 payment to Rune Hauge – he of the brown paper bung to George Graham – for his involvement in the transfer. Ridsdale, F365 hastens to add, was exonerated by the Leeds inquiry.
Fowler, meanwhile, was bought for £11m from Liverpool in November 2001 despite the club being heavily in debt, only to be sold two years later for £6m with Leeds, bafflingly, agreeing to continue paying £500,000 of his annual salary.
The newspaper also claims that there are ‘questions’ over the £308,000 annual payment to a company based in the tax haven of Jersey, and that the fee of £200,000 paid to agents involved in the deal which brought the hilariously inept Roque Junior to Elland Road on loan would ‘be of interest to investigators’.
Leeds fans may also be interested to learn that Leeds paid the £3m legal fees for defending Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate in their assault trials.
While the likeable Bowyer was acquitted, Woodgate was found guilty of affray. The news that Leeds paid for Bowyer’s defence is all the more remarkable given that, after the trial, the player refused to pay a club fine for breaking a curfew on the night of the alleged assault and was subsequently placed on the transfer list.
According to The Sunday Times, ‘the club agree to pay the players’ legal costs, apparently in the belief that the money would be repaid.’<br>
Due to a ‘dispute which has yet to be resolved’, it has not
The Sunday Times claims that, following the DTI commission of a report into the management of the club by insolvency expert Brendan Guilfoyle, secretary of state Patricia Hewitt referred the matter to the SFO and the police. The SFO have now ‘approved a full-scale report.’<br>
Upon undertaking the report, Guilfoyle stated: “I will look at the conduct of current and past directors to see if they are fit to be directors.”<br>
While the Sunday Times adds that ‘there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing’ on the part of Peter Ridsdale, the chairman of Leeds at the height of its financial mayhem, it’s believed that the SFO inquiry will focus on events up until March 2003. Their reports fails to note that, coincidentally, Ridsdale finally resigned as Leeds chairman on March 31 2003.
It’s thought the SFO will specifically probe the transfers of Robbie Fowler to Man Citeh and Rio Ferdinand from West Ham in 2000.
The Ferdinand deal was subject to a previous internal inquiry at Leeds after Ridsdale authorised a £900,000 payment to Rune Hauge – he of the brown paper bung to George Graham – for his involvement in the transfer. Ridsdale, F365 hastens to add, was exonerated by the Leeds inquiry.
Fowler, meanwhile, was bought for £11m from Liverpool in November 2001 despite the club being heavily in debt, only to be sold two years later for £6m with Leeds, bafflingly, agreeing to continue paying £500,000 of his annual salary.
The newspaper also claims that there are ‘questions’ over the £308,000 annual payment to a company based in the tax haven of Jersey, and that the fee of £200,000 paid to agents involved in the deal which brought the hilariously inept Roque Junior to Elland Road on loan would ‘be of interest to investigators’.
Leeds fans may also be interested to learn that Leeds paid the £3m legal fees for defending Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate in their assault trials.
While the likeable Bowyer was acquitted, Woodgate was found guilty of affray. The news that Leeds paid for Bowyer’s defence is all the more remarkable given that, after the trial, the player refused to pay a club fine for breaking a curfew on the night of the alleged assault and was subsequently placed on the transfer list.
According to The Sunday Times, ‘the club agree to pay the players’ legal costs, apparently in the belief that the money would be repaid.’<br>
Due to a ‘dispute which has yet to be resolved’, it has not
