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Those who have followed the fortunes of Leeds United over the last 12 months or so, would raise a wry smile at knowing that Leeds United were formed in 1919 after their predecessors (Leeds City) were folded amidst a row with the Football League over financial misdemeanours. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Leeds City had been accused of making illegal payments to players and after they were disbanded, the United team were almost immediately formed out of the ashes and entered the Midland League on 31st October 1919, replacing Leeds City Reserves. United are not the original occupants of Elland Road either - the land was owned by Yorkshire Amateurs, who invited the new club to play there, eventually selling the ground to Leeds in 1920.
Leeds United were elected to the Football League for the start of the 1920-21 season and spent most of their early 40 years or so as a second tier side, occasionally yo-yoing up to the top tier before gravity overtook them and they returned back to the Second Division.
March 1961 represents the landmark moment in the club's history - the appoinment of Don Revie as manager. He arrived finding a club in financial turmoil that were in danger of dropping to Division Three. But by 1963-64, he had guided them into the First Division where they would begin the start of their glory years.
Across 10 years between 1965 and 1974, Leeds were consistently a top four First Division side, won the League Championship twice (1968-69 and 1973-74), the FA Cup and League Cup once each and the Fairs Cup twice. They were also finalists in the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Cup (now Champions League for all you youngsters out there). But just as Revie's arrival signalled their up-turn, so his departure for the England manager's job signalled their gradual decline, eventually resulting in relegation at the end of the 1981-82 season.
A series of management changes saw little change until Howard Wilkinson's arrival at the club in October 1988. Promotion back to the First Division was achieved in 1989-90 and by 1991-92 it seemed as though their glory days were back as Wilkinson took them to a third League Championship. But he couldn't repeat that feat in subsequent seasons and Leeds appeared to be slipping away.
The football map was radically changing, with hated rivals Manchester United in full flow and suddenly the Champions League and Sky Sports providing lucrative financial incentives for the most successful clubs. By now managed by David O'Leary and with Chairman Peter Risdale at the helm, Leeds began to chase the dream.
Initially it worked. A UEFA Cup semi-final place against Galatasaray was followed by a UEFA Champions League 2001 semi-final against Valencia, but then it began to crumble, with Risdale taking out huge loans on the expectation that the Champions League gravy train would continue to run.
It didn't. Leeds finished the next season one place outside the Champions League places, Rio Ferdinand was sold off to hated rivals Manchester United for 30 million and then O'Leary and Risdale were involved in a rather public war of words on the subject, and O'Leary exited stage left. Not that Risdale lasted much longer, as Leeds well and truly crashed and burned, with relegation coming at the end of the 2003-04 season, and suggestions that the Yorkshire side had clocked up 121 million pounds of debts at their peak. More players were sold, as were the training ground and Elland Road itself, and in came Ken Bates in January 2005, buying the club for 10 million, for a new chapter in the club's turbulent history.
Thereafter, it would be possible to write a whole book on what happened to Leeds. Having relatively stabilised matters in the Championship, and with manager Kevin Blackwell having projected in September 2006 that Leeds would be debt free within a year - a somewhat improbable claim, were it not for what was to materialise. Blackwell wasn't around to see that happen - Dennis Wise was appointed as manager barely a week after Blackwell's claim and Leeds began a dangerous slide towards the foot of the Championship.
A side issue here was that the Leeds fans hated the idea of their club being run by two ex-Chelsea stalwarts and began open demonstrations and chants of "Get The Chelsea Out Of Leeds" - a "Love Leeds Hate Bates" website was later set up. Results on the field of play hardly endeared either as Leeds finally tumbled out of the second tier of English football - their lowest standing in the pyramid since the year they formed.
Relegation coincided with Leeds falling into administration - a neat trick to nullify the Football League's 10 point penalty for any club taking administration as a means to reduce debts. KPMG were brought in as administrators and amidst more controversy, they sold the club ... back to Ken Bates! With local MPs chipping in with their view on the affair, and alternative backers questioning the bidding process, HM Revenue and Customs put in a legal challenge against the CVA, with debts recorded by KPMG against several off-shore companies. With the club hanging by a thread, and the Football League making noises about their own rules and regulations KPMG were eventually cajoled into putting the club up for sale again (!) whereupon they sold the club ... back to Ken Bates! This time though, there was no CVA for HMRC to challenge. However, that led to a twist in the tail, with the Football League declaring Leeds in breach of their insolvency rules and so deducting 15 points from the 2007-08 season and the FA expelling Leeds as full members for failing to set the CVA up the second time round.
Not that this appears to have done Leeds too much harm. They've junked the best part of the 35 million quids worth of debts and Bates stated recently that the club was as good as debt-free now - exactly as Blackwell had predicted - making them now probably the richest club in League One. The punishment given out by the Football League also had a welcome side-effect for Bates - it got the fans off his back and onto the authorities. That 15 points deduction is probably now looking like a bargain, and even if it proves to be too high a mountain to climb this season, then next season you sense that Leeds would probably walk the division. At present, it looks as though they may not even need that second season, making a mockery of the Football League's attempts to make junking debts via administration appear an unattractive proposition. If Leeds return to the Championship at the first attempt, then they will see administration and the associated points deductions as very welcome business indeed.
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