Leeds’ administrators KPMG have delayed their decision on who will take control at Elland Road. KPMG had set a deadline of noon today for interested parties to show proof of funds following yesterday’s 5pm deadline for the submitting of offers.
KPMG adminstrator Richard Fleming said: “We are continuing to evaluate the expressions of interest received and will make a further announcement in due course. We appreciate that there is a great deal of interest in the outcome and will take our decision in the best interests of creditors to ensure the best future for the club.”
Ken Bates has threatened to take legal action if Leeds United are sold to a rival bidder. KPMG put the Coca-Cola League One club up for sale to the highest bidder on Friday night after Bates’s buy-back deal was challenged in the High Court by Revenue & Customs.
SR Morris Property Group and Redbus Group, which have lodged separate bids, held talks over the weekend about submitting a joint “super-bid”. Bates, the chairman who placed the club in administration on May 4 and formed a new company to buy them back, has confirmed that he has resubmitted his offer for the club.
“Our bid is the original deal that was done in the meeting of creditors when we placed the Company Voluntary Agreement on June 1,” Bates said. “We have amended it twice to try and meet the Inland Revenue’s objections.”
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Bates believed that KPMG would be forced to close the club if nobody stepped forward to pay the running costs and claimed his rivals have not secured sufficient funding for their bids.
“We believe our offer is valid,” Bates said. “Therefore, it should be the only one to be accepted. There’s a problem and a possibility that, if the administrator goes down another route, then there could be further legal battles.
“After all, we haven’t come all this way over the last 2½ years, borrowed and spent all that money, got the club turned round, got rid of all the bad organisation that the previous regimes left in place, to go out without a fight.”
Revenue is owed £7.7 million by Leeds, who have total debts of more than £35 million. Under Bates’s initial buy-back deal — one pence in the pound — Revenue was to receive £77,000. Bates increased his offer to eight pence in the pound last week, but on Friday the High Court postponed a decision on Revenue’s appeal until September 3.
“We’re in limbo,” Bates said. “It must be very worrying for the fans and it’s very worrying for the staff. They’re just ordinary people wondering if they’ve got a job or not.”