Decision on Cellino takeover of Leeds set to be delayed over tax case

Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey told Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democract Member of Parliament for Leeds North West, that Cellino would be considered “innocent until proven guilty” of allegations of embezzlement related to the construction of a new stadium for the 57-year-old’s Italian club Cagliari.

But the governing body’s decision on whether to approve his purchase of Leeds may now depend on a separate court case concerning claims that Cellino avoided payment of VAT on a luxury yacht.

That case is now due to be heard by a court in Sardinia on March 18.

A meeting of the Football League’s board is scheduled to take place on March 13 and the League was keen to conclude its investigation in time for that date.

The new allegations of tax evasion against Cellino, however, are dissuading the League from approving his 75 per cent takeover of Leeds ahead of his appearance in court.

Cellino denies claims that he avoided payment of an import tax of 400,000 euros on a private yacht in 2010. Prosecutors in Italy want the courts to seize the boat and fine him more than one million euros.

The owner of Cagliari Calcio has two previous convictions for fraud and false accounting but one was overturned on appeal and the other is classed as spent.

Neither penalty would bar Cellino from buying United under Football League rules, but a fresh conviction for tax evasion could collapse his proposed buy-out of Gulf Finance House.

The deal to sell a majority stake in United to Cellino was agreed at the end of January, with contracts exchanged and a first payment made during the first week of February, but the Football League’s approval process has been under scrutiny from the outset.

Mulholland met with Harvey –the former Leeds chief executive – in the Houses of Parliament in London last week to pose questions about the takeover and seeks reassurances from Harvey that the League was “following due process fully and properly.”

Mulholland said: ““Everyone wants to see a conclusion to the current talks and the current situation and I asked to speak to the Football League to make sure that they were following due process fully and properly. It made clear to me that they were.

“We all have an interest in making sure that people who become owners and director of football clubs are appropriate.”

In a letter sent by Harvey to Mulholland the following day, dated February 27, the Football League chief executive – a man involved in the sale of Leeds by Ken Bates to GFH in 2012 – again outlined the approval process, but stressed that the Owners and Directors Test “operates on the basis of innocent until proven guilty, in respect to potential further charges.”