Ken Bates ‘has owned Leeds since 2005’, MP claims amid call for takeover crackdown

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson warned the coalition was ready to tighten legislation over who could buy clubs following six years of confusion over the ownership of Leeds United and a handful of other league clubs in the past few seasons.

Conservative Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe), who sits on the backbench Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which is investigating football ownership, told MPs: “The case of Leeds United should compel the Government to press for greater clarity from the football authorities on the administration of the rules of club ownership.”

He added: “The business failure of Leeds United was a source of great distress to fans, cost millions of pounds in unpaid tax and left local businesses out of pocket.”

Mr Collins questioned how it could be right for a football club to be sold between offshore business ventures “without anyone knowing how much was paid, where the money came from and ... even who was selling the club”.

He said such situations left the sport’s bosses unable to carry out their “fit and proper person” test into whether a potential buyer was suitable to run a club.

“Fans have a right to know who owns their club. It’s incredible the FA and Football League maintained a situation where they didn’t actually know who the ultimate owners were,” said Mr Collins.

“This is the least football fans should expect. I have no objection to overseas investors bringing their money into English football, but we do have a right to know where that money comes from and who the ultimate owners of a club are.”

He said the English game should be cleaned up before critics condemned football’s world governing body Fifa, currently embroiled in an alleged bribes scandal over the hosting of two world cups.

Mr Collins said: “As we are critical of the way in which Fifa has tried to enforce its own code of ethics and its own inquiries ... I don’t believe we can truly have a voice of authority on all these issues around the world, as we should do as one of the world’s great football countries, until we truly resolve all these issues domestically.”

He also called for a review of the circumstances leading to ex-Chelsea chairman Ken Bates’ takeover of Leeds, confirmed last month.

But Mr Collins told MPs rumours had circulated in the game that Bates was the real owner since his appointment as chairman of the Elland Road club in 2005.

Mr Collins added: “There can be few people in football who privately do not believe that Ken Bates has effectively been in control of the club for most of the last six years.”

Speaking during a short Westminster Hall debate today on the Leeds saga and the football ownership row, the sports minister warned: “The Government does not want to run football or micro-manage its future.

“All sports, including football, are best run by the sport’s governing bodies. But they have to prove they are strong, effective, independent, transparent and, crucially, accountable organisations.

“I see the Government’s role as one which challenges the Football Association and the organisations that run the leagues to make sure the game and its governance arrangements are capable of responding to the challenges and opportunities faced by football.

“I do not particularly want to legislate, but football should be in no doubt whatsoever that if it does not react to what the Government lays out after the Select Committee report, we are prepared to legislate if necessary.”

Mr Robertson believed historic clubs and their loyal supporters should be protected from short-term business deals that could jeopardise a club’s existence.

He said: “Football clubs are not simply businesses. They are part and parcel of the community. I refer to them as ‘businesses with a social conscience’.

“So I do not think it is unrealistic for supporters to have higher corporate expectations of the owners of a club than they do of some local businesses.”

Mr Robertson denied he was “having a go at football”, but added: “Supporters of every club have a right to know with certainty the person or people who own their football club.

“The football authorities need to work with their clubs to make full disclosure a priority, to make sure appropriate inquiries and due diligence as to the identity and circumstances of potential buyers are always carried out.

“They need to do that before they allow ownership to change hands.”

The story of Leeds’ financial collapse and dramatic on-field implosion from the top of the Premier League into English football’s third tier has highlighted the problem around unclear club ownership and murky deals.