Tag: Leeds United

UK:Bahraini Bid For ‘Leeds United’ Football Club

A private equity firm based in the Middle East has announced a deal to take control of Leeds United Football Club.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) has been in talks with the club’s current owner Ken Bates for several weeks.

Equity firm GFH Capital said it had “signed an exclusive agreement to lead and arrange the acquisition of Leeds City Holdings, the parent company of LUFC”.

It added Leeds was “one of the best-supported clubs in English football with a higher than average match day attendance than most Premier League teams”.

Citing a confidentiality provision, GFH Capital gave no financial details or any acquisition time frame but reports indicate a bid of around £50m for control.

Company officials would not comment on whether the Bahraini unit would provide all the money for the purchase or whether other investors might be involved.

It said the club would benefit financially from a recent renegotiation of television broadcast rights for football, if it won promotion to the lucrative Premier League.

David Haigh, lifetime Leeds supporter and deputy-CEO of the equity firm, also posted a Twitter message hinting at the impending deal.

Mr Haigh tweeted: “Good morning everyone. Thank you for all your messages of support. They are very important to us. #LUFC”

Last weekend, club chairman Ken Bates confirmed advanced negotiations involving a “banking institution” were taking place, and GFH board members were spotted at Elland Road.

Last June, details emerged that 80-year-old Mr Bates, who took control of the club in 2004, was in discussion with investors.

Details of a possible sale end a four-month period where fans have been given little information about the club’s future.

Having reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League in 2001, the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2004 and dropped into the third tier of English football in 2007 before promotion to the Football League Championship in 2010.

The on-field descent came against a backdrop of financial woes, which forced the club to sell key players and ultimately led to administration in 2007.

“If you look back since the start of the Premier League, Leeds are without doubt the most successful club not to be in it right now,” Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said.

“If you can return it to the Premier League, then it could return to being one of the top 20 clubs in the world by revenue – that’s the scale of the club you’re dealing with.”

Sky News

September 27, 2012
Turkish hooligans finally jailed for Leeds killings

Turkish football hooligans who stabbed two Leeds United supporters to death more than a decade ago in Istanbul have finally been jailed, reports the Yorkshire Post.

Four Turkish men have lost their final appeal against their convictions for the murder of Leeds fans Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight in April 2000.

Mr Loftus and Mr Speight were amongst a group of around 25 Leeds fans who were attacked by hundreds of Galatasaray supporters outside a bar in the Turkish capital on the eve of a cup tie between the two sides. They died after sustaining multiple knife wounds in the onslaught.

With the help of CCTV evidence, four men were indicted for murder within a week of the attack, including Ali Umit Demir, at whose flat police found a knife stained with the blood of both men. But even though Demir admitted the offence, the convictions of all four were later quashed.

Following a re-trial the men were re-convicted, but subsequently released on appeal.

Ali Baydar and Demir had both received prison sentences of six years and eight months, Suleyman Gokhan Guven of 10 years, and Yilmaz Tutus of five.

Now, more than a decade after the murders took place, the Turkish courts have finally refused the appeals and jailed the men.

via Turkish hooligans finally jailed for Leeds killings | Premiership News | tribalfootball.com.

November 28, 2010
MP’s talks over Leeds United fan deaths in Turkey

Leeds MP Fabian Hamilton

An MP has held talks with a Turkish diplomat in an attempt to get justice for two Leeds United fans who were murdered in the country 10 years ago.

Chris Loftus, 35, and Kevin Speight, 40, were killed in Istanbul on the eve of Leeds’ Uefa Cup semi-final against Galatasaray on 5 April 2000.

Four men were convicted of involvement in the murders but were bailed pending an appeal which has still to be heard.

Leeds MP Fabian Hamilton* said his talk with the Turkish ambassador went well.

He said: “I was impressed at how articulate he was and how concerned he was that this particular case is a running sore in Anglo-Turkish relations.

“It’s something that he wants to see put to bed, not just for the sake of the relationship between our two countries but he was very concerned and expressed a lot of concern about the families of the victims.”

Wreaths laid

Mr Hamilton hopes Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union could be used as leverage to get progress in the long-delayed case.

He said the recently-appointed ambassador said the Turkish government could not directly interfere in judicial proceedings.

“But I pointed out to him that Turkey is an aspiring member of the European Union and we do want Turkey to join the European Union, all political parties here in great Britain are in favour,” he said.

“But this issue has to be resolved because it’s symptomatic of a judicial system that is not working fairly and transparently.”

Mr Hamilton has campaigned for justice alongside the men’s families.

In April about 300 fans joined them to mark the 10th anniversary of the deaths by laying wreaths at Leeds United’s Elland Road ground.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-11220754, 7 September 2010

* “New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry” by Jessica Elgot, The Jewish Chronicle, May 14, 2010

September 8, 2010
Leeds head call for justice on 10th anniversary of Istanbul killings
• Elland Road protest marked 10 years since death of fans
• MP demands action from foreign secretary
- Press Association
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 April 2010 15.42 BST
Floral tributes were laid by Leeds fans at Elland Road to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of two supporters in Turkey. Illustration: Dave Higgens/PA

Hundreds of football fans gathered today to mark the 10th anniversary of the killing of two Leeds United supporters in Turkey and called for “justice” in their case.

Christopher Loftus, 35, and Kevin Speight, 40, were stabbed to death in Taksim Square on the night before the club’s Uefa Cup semi-final against Galatasaray on 5 April 2000.

About 300 Leeds United fans gathered outside Elland Road in Leeds today. They laid dozens of bunches of flowers, team shirts, scarves and other tributes around the statute of Billy Bremner and also at the brass plaque a few metres away which commemorates the deaths.

Chris Loftus’s brother, Andy, stood alongside the Leeds North East MP, Fabian Hamilton, who told the crowd Turkey needed to do more to bring those responsible to justice. Hamilton said he had also written to the foreign secretary, David Miliband, to ask him to put pressure on the Turkish authorities.

A number of people were arrested following the deaths in 2000 and four men were found guilty of involvement in the murders by the Turkish courts but all still remain free as they pursue an apparently interminable appeal process.

“There’s a very, very strong feeling, especially amongst the families, that justice has not been done and nor has it seen to be done in Istanbul,” said Hamilton.

“The people arrested and convicted of these dreadful murders have never actually served any time in jail – they’ve been released on bail pending appeal for the last few years. No trial date has been given for that appeal hearing.

“This is absolutely appalling and I’ve been putting pressure on the foreign secretary and on the chief constable of West Yorkshire to take some action to pressurise the Turks to actually so something.”

Asked what influence the UK can bring on Turkey, the Labour MP said: “Turkey has ambitions to join the European Union and I think this could be part of that pressure on the Turks to put their judicial system in order, to see that justice has to be seen to be done especially for the families here who are very angry that nothing’s happened and that the people who are guilty of these crimes have never actually served any time in jail.

“That’s appalling and that’s the pressure we can put on the Turkish government. They want to join the EU. They’d better get their judicial system in order and they’d better ensure that the families here are satisfied that justice has been done.”

After Hamilton addressed the crowd, those who gathered, including many children, observed a two-minute silence.

A one-minute silence was also observed before Leeds United’s 2-1 victory over Yeovil at Huish Park. Both teams wore black armbands in memory of the killed supporters and Leeds fans, in an echo of what happened before the Uefa Cup match against Galatasaray took place on 6 April 2000, turned their backs on the match for the first minute in protest at the lack of justice for the Loftus and Speight families.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/apr/05/leeds-kevin-speight-chris-loftus, 5 April 2010
April 5, 2010