Long Running Saga is Over

[SCOTTISH LEEDS]

Liquidators appointed after Leeds United entered administration almost 12 years ago have finally dissolved the original company which owned the club - with less than £750,000 paid to unsecured creditors.

Leeds United Association Football Club Limited, the firm established when the club were formed in 1920, was formally liquidated last month after KPMG filed its last report with Companies House.

KPMG oversaw Leeds’ insolvency in 2007 and was given the job of winding up the company which entered administration following the transfer of ownership of United to a new firm, Leeds United 2007 Ltd.

The Elland Road club were declared insolvent during the reign of former chairman Ken Bates in May 2007, with total debts in excess of £30m.

During a complicated and much-criticised process, Bates agreed another takeover with KPMG and bought back the club after Leeds’ largest creditor, overshore firm Astor Investment Holdings, agreed to write off debts of more than £17m provided Bates retained control at Elland Road, despite the former Chelsea chairman stating that he had no connection to Astor.

The rules of the EFL required Leeds to pay any football debts in full but the final report filed by KPMG on February 18 revealed that of more than £18.5m of claims made by unsecured creditors, a total of £745,568 was repaid.

The document, meanwhile, declared KPMG’s “time costs” for handling the liquidation as £548,751 and said the firm had so far been paid £499,008. The total cost of the process was almost £1m.

[PockWhite]

Ken Bates has to be one of the most despicable and untrustworthy people to ever walk this earth?
Allegedly of course?