Leeds announced on this day 16 years ago that their immediate future was safe after Gerald Krasner’s consortium completed a takeover.
Relegation from the Premier League followed soon after and Leeds have not returned since, while the fall-out from their financial meltdown under former chairman Peter Ridsdale would be felt for years to come.
Here, the PA news agency charts the club’s highs and lows under their different owners since Krasner took control in 2004.
March 19, 2004 – With spiralling debts, reported to be £103million, Leeds United plc and Leeds United Holdings Ltd are placed in administration, but not the football club, to allow Krasner’s consortium, Adulant Force Ltd, to complete its takeover.
May 9, 2004 – Leeds’ 14-year spell in the Premier League is over after a 3-3 home draw against Charlton confirms their relegation.
November 12, 2004 – Leeds are forced to sell Elland Road to Manchester-based property developer Jack Adler after the collapse of Sebastien Sainsbury’s £25m takeover bid. Adler bought the club’s Thorp Arch training complex for £4.2m the previous month.
January 21, 2005 – Ken Bates completes his club takeover, buying a 50 per cent stake through Geneva-based company The Forward Sports
Fund for £10m.
May 4, 2007 – Bates places the club in administration and immediately forms a
new company, Forward Sports Fund, to buy it back again.
May 4, 2007 – The Football League imposes on Leeds a statutory 10-point deduction for going into administration which confirms their relegation to League One.
July 3, 2007 – The Inland Revenue launches a legal challenge to Bates’ buy-back deal due to £7.7m owed to them in unpaid taxes.
July 11, 2007 – Administrators KPMG announce the sale of Leeds to Bates’ consortium.
August 3, 2007 – The Football League confirms Leeds will resume the following season in League One, but also hand out a 15-point deduction for not complying with insolvency rules.
May 8, 2010 – Leeds are promoted back to the Championship after beating Bristol Rovers 2-1 on the final day of the season.
May 3, 2011 – Bates becomes Leeds’ major shareholder in a move that ends the mystery over the club’s ownership, buying out FSF Limited through his company Outro Limited.
December 21, 2012 – Dubai-based investment company GFH Capital completes a protracted £52m club takeover, buying a 100 per cent stake in the club.
February 1, 2014 – GFH Capital announces it has agreed to sell a 75 per cent stake in the club to Italian Massimo Cellino, subject to Football League approval.
April 5, 2014 – An independent QC overturns the Football League’s decision to disqualify Cellino due to a tax conviction and the Italian completes his club takeover.
May 30, 2014 – Manager Brian McDermott, who Cellino had previously tried to sack, departs the club by mutual consent.
December 1, 2014 – Cellino is disqualified by the Football League for three months for tax evasion after an Italian court confirmed it had been a dishonest act.
March 5, 2015 – Cellino’s ban is extended from March until end of the 2014/15 season.
May 8, 2015 – Cellino returns to his office at Elland Road.
October 19, 2015 – The Football League announces Cellino is disqualified following another tax conviction in Italy. He appeals again.
November 4, 2015 – Cellino reneges on his decision to sell the club to fans’ group Leeds Fans United.
December 7, 2016 – As reports emerge that Cellino is to be banned by the FA for breaching its agent regulations over the sale of Ross McCormack, the Italian releases a statement saying he intends to appeal.
December 8, 2016 – The FA confirms it has banned Cellino for 18 months, effective of February 1, 2017, and fined both him and Leeds £250,000.
January 4, 2017 – Cellino sells a 50 per cent stake in the club to Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani.
May 24, 2017 – Radrizzani takes full control of Leeds after buying the remaining 50 per cent of shares held by Cellino.
June 29, 2017 – Elland Road returns to Leeds’ ownership for the first time in 13
years after Radrizzani completes a deal to purchase the ground.
June 15, 2018 – Former Argentina and Chile coach Marcelo Bielsa signs a two-year deal to become the highest-paid manager in the club’s history.
