Leeds United: Trust wants memberships to be refunded

Cellino announced that he is planning to cap the amount of tickets available to travelling fans to 2,000 for every away game.

The move came in response to the constant rescheduling of fixtures for television broadcast, which Cellino says is damaging the club’s finances.

However, a spokesperson for the Supporters’ Trust said that they are “astonished” by the decision.

They said: “While all Leeds fans want to be able to plan their attendance at games without the stress of Sky constantly changing the fixture list we fail to see how limiting our allocation at away games assists this. If anything a large away following making the point live on TV would be 100 times more effective than restricting numbers.

“The Trust is also astonished that the club, through the Chairman, makes this statement and decision without the basics of consultation with fans groups. If the Trust had been contacted we would have wanted to point out that the power of a wide support like ours across the country lies in its presence, not its absence.

“We consider this unilateral decision creates as many problems for the club as it does for others. 99 per cent of fans who purchase Gold, Silver and Bronze membership cards do so because they are required to in order to attend away games. We call on the club to refund all who paid for 15/16 cards on the grounds that such opportunity is now denied to supporters by what we consider ill-thought through decision.”

The spokesperson added that while they disagree with the changing of fixtures, they fail “to see what this unilateral, non-consulted on and loyal fan punishing decision expects to achieve and we call on Massimo Cellino to reconsider immediately”.