LUFC Bates breaks silence on possible investment

For the first time in over three months, Leeds United chairman Ken Bates finally put some meat on the bones of what is actually happening regarding the proposed investment at Elland Road.

The normally outspoken chairman has been eerily quiet since the news at the end of May that a possible new investment was coming into the club.

Even with a confidentiality agreement in place with the possible investors, Bates hasn`t taken up his usually Wednesday lunchtime slot on Yorkshire Radio.

Bates did speak with Yorkshire Radio`s Thom Khirwin ahead of the game with Nottingham Forest on Saturday and for the first time, Leeds fans might be able to stop guessing and double guessing what is actually going on.

In his interview, Bates said, "The confidentiality agreement we signed was very important to them because they are a banking institution and are a public company. Therefore, anything that is said, can affect their share price, which they have to be careful of. Secondly, because they are a banking institution they are under severe regulations. They have regulations that if we had in England, we would not be in the banking fiasco that we are still trying to recover from.

"This is a company that have offices in Dubai as well as Bahrain. They have investments and interests throughout the Gulf, North Africa and Asia, including India. They have a very diverse portfolio and a vary of interests and a sheer time difference between the various areas.

"In our particular event, they are using London lawyers, so there are certain logistical problems. However, I have discussed it with them in length and there are only certain things I can go into.

"Four of their top people were here for a long meeting yesterday and are here as our guests today.

"We are well advanced in our discussions. There are number of technical points that need to be resolved. Some of the delays have been because of the summer holidays. Because of the heat in the Gulf, a lot of people leave the Gulf and go to cooler climes and our people also have holidays, including the lawyers.

"We are making good progress and we had a very positive meeting on Friday. The potential investors are now looking to get this deal concluded as soon as possible. I cannot say any more than that and I do not intend to make any more statements.

Let our investors and our board get on with things and bring this matter to an early conclusion. Both parties regret that because of factors beyond our control, we missed the August transfer window but we are already planning for the January window.

Like I have already said, we had four of their top people, top executives and directors here from their institution.

We had one bit of bad luck. Their chairman was coming to meet me to resolve a few things, chairman-to-chairman that only chairman can do but unfortunately he had to pull out at the last minute for personal reasons. We were both disappointed but we plan to get together as soon as possible."

The new investors present at the game on Saturday will hopefully have been impressed with the fighting spirit shown by the Leeds team.

Injury hit Leeds won four the first time in four games when they beat Forest 2-1 thanks to goals from Luciano Becchio and Dominic Poleon.




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