Leeds supporters’ trust chair calls for Bates to be charged by the FA

An Ofcom report found Bates used his position as the Leeds United chairman to access computer files and broadcast private information through the club’s radio station Yorkshire Radio.

The information broadcasted related to the chairman of the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust, Gary Cooper, who has now contacted the FA and Football League calling for them to act.

A disrepute charge against Bates has been held in abeyance by the FA since August last year and Cooper, who has demanded a full apology, believes Bates has manipulated his authority as club chairman.

The charge is being held in abeyance owing to a court case that Bates is bringing against the former Leeds director Melvyn Levi.

Mr Cooper said: “He’s used his authority and control to misrepresent facts and information in a manner that’s flagrantly to discredit the trust and myself and that’s not fair.”

Media regulator Ofcom found that two separate interviews with Bates, broadcast in February 2012, “were likely to have materially or adversely affected listeners’ views of Mr Cooper” and that “Mr Cooper’s privacy was unwarrantably infringed”.

During the interviews Bates, who was responding to criticism from the trust regarding the financial running of the club, alleged that Mr Cooper didn’t attend games during the 2010-11 season and talked of Mr Cooper’s profession after accessing the club’s computer records of him as a customer.

A Leeds United spokesman refused to comment.

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