Front page of Yorkshire Evening Post tonight
Aritcle 1 - Secrecy surrounding who owns LUFC ground could put plans for an
arena and casino on the site at risk. Neither the club and Leeds City Council
knows who owns Elland Road since it was sold to Teak Commercial Ltd a firm
based in the caribean tax haven of the british virgin islands. Leeds City
Council Leader Andrew Carter said the authority had drwan a blank in
"exhaustive " attempts to locate Teaks owners .He said the council would need
answers before it could commit to plans to make Elland Raod the heart of a new
"leisure quarter" boasting an arena and a casino. He went on : I dont deal with
people I dont know anything about neither should the city. And Leeds MP Colin
Burgon has written to sports minister Richard Caborn asking what can be done
regarding a "lack of transparency" in football. He cites Elland Raod as an
example of how supporters are not getting enough information about clubs they
follow and said he was prepared to raise the matter in the
commons. Mr Burgon (lab Elmet)told the YEP Elland road deserves better than
to be in the hands of people who are to all intents are purposes ,facless and
unaccountable . Elland road was sold to Teak for just under £8 million in March
2005 by Manchester businessman Jacob Adler . The change of owner did not come
to light until the end of last year. Mr Aldler bought the ground in November
2004 from United ,then struggling to stave off adminisration prior to the
arrival of current chairman Ken Bates.
Both deals gave Leeds 25 year lease plus a buy back option which would today
cost them around 13m to exercise. The annual rent on the ground is at present
£1.15m. When Mr Adler was asked by the YEP if he was linked to Teak hw would
only say "my business dealings are not for the pages of the YEP,I am a private
individual. In a statement united chief executive Shaun Harvey said"The club
does not know who owns Teak commercial Ltd but our contact with them is still
Jacob Adler so(we) have no reason to believe it is anyone but him. He also
stressed Mr Bates had noconnection with Teak. Documnets lodged with the UK land
registry give teaks address as a post office box number in Road Twon the
capital of the British Virgin Uslands. Companies based in the territory are not
required to file public accounts or disclose details of their directors.The
Financial services commission the islands business regulatory body failed to
respnd to a request for information about Teak
Article 2. Bates and Levi in Face -off at Restaurant - Stunned dinners looked
on in amazement as Leeds United Chairman Ken Bates came face to face with
former Director Melvin Levi. The flying Pizza restaurant in street lane
Roundhay was the scene for a showdown when Mr Levi spotted Mr Bates enjoying
dinner with his wife Suzannah and deputy chairman Jayne McGunness at around 8pm
yesterday.
Article far too long for me to type but one bit goes on Ken said "He came
across to the table ,bearing in mind this is a man in fear of his life and said
we needed to talk and to get this sorted out. I said all you had to do is keep
your mouth shut. He said "well I need to talk to you and I said youve got my
**** ing telephone number ring me up. Mr Bates added I think the other diners
thought it was cabaret.
chuffing ech -its worse than Emmerdale and Eastenders
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it's a God awful small affair
