Massimo Cellino not required to sell Leeds United shares despite being banned as owner
• Italian has told Football League he does not directly own 75% stake
• MP Damian Collins brands move ‘unacceptable’ and a ‘mockery’
• Cellino case at Leeds United exposes frailty of fit and proper test
Massimo Cellino will not have to sell any stake in Leeds United, according to sources close to him, which would further undermine the Football League’s rules that ban convicted financial criminals from running clubs. The MP Damian Collins, who is campaigning for improved football club ownership rules, described the position as unacceptable and questioned whether the game can have confidence in the Football League chief executive, Shaun Harvey, who was formerly the chief executive at Elland Road.
The Italian businessman and former owner of Serie A club Cagliari was banned as an owner and director two weeks ago after the league finally received the written judgment of a Cagliari court that he dishonestly evaded an estimated €388,500 import tax on his yacht, the Nelie.
Cellino has stepped down as a Leeds director, but is understood to have told the league that he does not in fact own the 75% stake in the club. His lawyers are believed to have said the shares are held in a blind trust, of which Cellino and his family are beneficiaries. They say that means no shares need be sold to comply with Cellino’s ban, and his trust’s vehicle, Eleonora Sport, can retain the shares.
This position appears to contradict the Leeds ownership described in the banning decision of the league’s professional conduct committee, chaired by Tim Kerr QC, which included the league’s chairman, Greg Clarke. It stated: “Mr Cellino, through corporate vehicles controlled by him and his family, acquired a controlling interest in Leeds United Football Club.”
Gulf Finance House, the Bahrain investment bank which sold the 75% stake to Cellino and retains the other 25% of Leeds, told the Guardian it understands that the Eleonora Sport stake is held in a blind trust.
At present, the league is understood still to be considering the argument that Cellino does not own the shares, and to be discussing with Cellino’s lawyers whether they can show he does not exercise control. A banned person is required not to wield director-level authority at a club, and Leeds, where Andrew Umbers has taken over as chairman, maintain Cellino will not direct any matters during his ban. His two sons, Edoardo and Ercole Cellino, are both directors on the board of the club.
Massimo Cellino case at Leeds United exposes frailty of fit and proper test
By a strange twist, this has similarities with the position Leeds were in when Ken Bates was the chairman from 2005 to 2012, representing offshore owners whose identities were never disclosed to the league. Ultimately the league was understood to have approved Leeds under its rules by being satisfied that the unnamed offshore owners – who by definition could not pass the owners and directors test – were not wielding control. The chief executive of Leeds at the time, who sought the league’s approval despite saying he himself did not know who the club’s owners were, was Harvey. He is now the chief executive of the Football League, responsible for ensuring that Leeds under their current ownership are complying with Cellino’s ban.
Cellino is intending to return in April after his conviction is spent under British law, although he faces a further misconduct charge for failing to send the league the written court judgment that found him to have been dishonest. He is also reported to face two further prosecutions for alleged tax evasion in Italy, scheduled for later this year. Leeds United and Cellino’s lawyers declined to comment.
Collins, who has proposed a parliamentary football governance bill to give the Football Association powers to bar from ownership people it believes will not comply with the game’s rules, condemned the Leeds position.
“It is unacceptable and makes a mockery of the rules if Massimo Cellino has been banned, but the Football League accepts the argument that a trust of which he is a beneficiary can remain in control. If the league is happy with this it calls into question whether they are fit to run their competition, and whether we can have confidence in Shaun Harvey as the chief executive, who said when he was at Leeds that he did not know who the owners were.”
A Football League spokesman said: “It is for Leeds United to satisfy the Football League that Massimo Cellino is not acting as a relevant person [an owner or director] as defined by its regulations, rather than for the league to dictate how this is achieved. The club will also be required to supply any evidence demanded by the board to support its submissions.”
Guardian
