Leeds United '˜Cellino out' fans vow to continue billboard campaign
Twitter pictures emerged today of the billboard, which bears a cartoon image of Cellino alongside a quote from a Yorkshire Evening Post interview with Cellino reading: “If I’m not welcome I’m not welcome. I go away and you never see me again.”
A supporter said on Twitter that he had driven past the poster on the M621 motorway, which passes Elland Road.
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Hide AdThe ‘Time To Go Massimo’ protest group said they had paid for the poster close to junction one of the M621 so it would be seen by Cellino driving from the club’s home ground Elland Road.
The club declined to comment on the latest protest - but a Time To Go spokesman said: “It’s a potential route he uses to go home, so he will probably see it at some point. The campaign is not going to stop until we get the result we want.”
The spokesperson said they had already raised £8,000 in donations. Asked whether he thought they would succeed, he added: “The only way we can find out is by going on doing it.”
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Hide AdLast month an advert at Elland Road calling for Cellino to sell the club was taken down after the agency responsible was threatened with legal action.
City Ads Yorkshire, who agreed to erect an advert paid for by a group of around 70 United fans, removed it after solicitors acting for Leeds and Cellino told the firm it “clearly amounts to harassment of Mr Cellino.”
That advert carried the slogan ‘Time to go, Massimo’ and listed a series of promises which the supporters claimed Cellino had failed to keep in his time as owner of the club. It also featured a caricature of the Italian with a red cross covering his face.
A letter from lawyers Ward Hadaway said: “This poster has obviously been placed outside the entrance to Mr Cellino’s place of work so as to cause the maximum distress to our client.
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Hide Ad“This exacerbates the quantum of harassment that is intended to be caused and is malicious.”
The letter said that despite requests from the club, City Ads Yorkshire had initially refused to remove the advert on the “grounds of freedom of speech”.