Cellino, Bates and football’s other most controversial owners (not all in Leeds!)

NEW LEEDS owner Massimo Cellino wouldn’t be the first controversial figure to run an English football club. Here are a few others...
Elland Road.Elland Road.
Elland Road.

THE VENKYS (BLACKURN ROVERS)

Owning India’s largest poultry business doesn’t necessarily qualify you to run a football club in Lancashire.

When the Venkys took over at Ewood Park in 2010 they promised Ronaldinho, Beckham and Champions League football.

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Instead fans got Leon Best and relegation to the Championship, with the Venkys not helping their cause by sacking popular manager Sam Allardyce within a month of arriving.

To top it off they roped the players into starring in an advert for their chicken empire which managed to make the drumsticks look even less appealing than David Dunn’s ‘acting’.

ROBERT MAXWELL (OXFORD UNITED)

The millionaire publisher saved the U’s from bankruptcy in 1982 but they continued to leak money, leading him to hatch a plan to merge with rivals Reading and form new club the Thames Valley Royals.

It was the cue for a mass sit-in protest by fans before the deal eventually collapsed due to a legal technicality over unissued shares.

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Meanwhile journalists at Maxwell’s paper the Sunday Mirror got used to him phoning up after a few drinks threatening to sack them unless they changed the score in the next day’s paper to record Oxford as having won rather than lost.

MICHAEL KNIGHTON (CARLISLE UNITED)

Former PE teacher and property developer Knighton first appeared on the radar in August 1989 when he publicised his attempted takeover of Manchester United by performing keepie ups in a full United kit in the Old Trafford centre circle.

The deal fell through and he settled for a seat on the board before buying Carlisle United, promising to get them to the Premier League.

He sacked popular manager Mervyn Day and took the reins himself, losing 37 out of 68 games as the club dropped to Division Three. Carlisle were put into voluntary administration in 2002, at which point Knighton sold up.

KEN BATES (LEEDS UNITED)

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No introductions needed here. Having failed in a bid to invest in Sheffield Wednesday, the former Chelsea chairman took charge of United in 2005, saying he wanted “one last challenge”.

The turbulent eight years that followed saw five different managers in the hotseat, bitter court battles and regular run-ins with fans.

VINCENT TAN (CARDIFF CITY)

Tan’s first move was to carry out a controversial rebrand of the club in an attempt to gain popularity in Asia.

The team’s shirt colour was changed from the traditional blue to ‘lucky’ red and a dragon included in the club crest.

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Next he replaced head of player recruitment Ian Moody with 23-year-old Alisher Apsalyamov, a Kazakhstani on work experience at the club.

After being sacked in December, outgoing manager Malky Mackay warned his replacement Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: “It’s going to be different”.

PETE WINKLEMAN (MK DONS)

The former music executive headed the consortium responsible for the 2003 relocation of Wimbledon FC 60 miles out of their native London borough of Merton to Milton Keynes.

He promptly took the club’s silverware – most notably the replica of the FA Cup won in 1988 – with him, only to have to return it to Merton Council four years later.

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Meanwhile, aggrieved Wimbledon fans formed AFC Wimbledon, which is now just one division below MK Dons.

JACKO AND EXETER CITY

In June 2002, Exeter City fans packed their St James Park ground for a fund-raising event staged by co-chairman Uri Geller.

The psychic spoon-bender roped in celebrity pals David Blaine, singer Patti Boulaye and Michael Jackson, who proceeded to ask the 10,000 crowd to hold hands, telling them: “We can help the world live without fear. It’s our only hope! I see Israel! I see Spain!”

Jackson was later made a co-director of the club, despite admitting he knew nothing about football.

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