Elland Road – all smoke but no fire!

Everyone seems to be getting worked up over the ownership of Elland Road.

Once again there’s plenty of smoke but no fire.

Leeds United confirmed today that Elland Road is still owned by Teak Commercial Limited.

Ken Bates spoke to the YEP,

“The allegation that we’ve bought back the ground is absolute rubbish. The long and short of this is that we haven’t bought the ground back and we don’t own it. The ownership hasn’t changed at all.”

Elland Road and Thorp Arch were sold off by Gerald Krasner in 2004 to try and avoid administration, before Ken Bates took over. Doubtless Ken and the board of Leeds United 2007 Ltd would love to re-acquire the properties, and currently they have the have a right to do so, but the cost was recently quoted, by Bates himself, at £19,142,806. So the League One club must continue to pay £2m in rent annually.

Shaun Harvey, United’s chief executive, said,

“We do have an option to buy Elland Road and Thorp Arch back, but we have not as yet exercised that option. We still intend to do so at the earliest opportunity but the situation is as it was.”

The interest in the fate of Elland Road seems tied to the fact that the owners, Teak Commercial Limited are registered in the British Virgin islands and, therefore, the details of the owners of the company are confidential and protected by law – it is a criminal offence to reveal the shareholders of such a BVI company. Once you tell someone they can’t know something ,that’s all they seem interested in!