Still red alert at Elland Road
By Michael Lynch
January 16 2004
Despite not being forced to go into administartion, in-debt side Leeds United are still in crisis according to the club's fans and officials.
Gerrard warned his fellow fans that even though the
deadline is likely to be put back, it will merely prolong the crisis currently
gripping Elland Road.
With debts of more than £80million, Leeds had initially
set a January 19 deadline to avoid administration, but look set to buy
themselves some time and put d-day back until the end of the month.
"I think what we've got at the moment is some very,
very difficult negotiations where really the bondholders, on paper, have a bond
that's worth, on paper, £60million, but we all know that it's not worth that in
today's market, given the situation Leeds are in," he said.
"If they are going to accept around £15million for their bond, that's a
huge hit and there are some very difficult negotiations at the moment.
"And with no announcement that suggest that the creditors are yet to accept
the current market value that has been put on the table.
"On Monday what we'll get is maybe what I call an elastoplast announcement.
The negotiations have not yet been successful, they are continuing but the club
is not going into administration and they're going to stick something together
to try to have enough money to allow Leeds United to keep trading until towards
the end of the season.
"That could resolve the major uncertainty of what the credit holders should
expect as they don't know whether they're dealing with club in the Premier
League or the Nationwide next season."
The club need about 5.5m still though and there's still no sign of the Arab oil
tycoon.
Eddie Gray also commented on their club's position.
"I think that that £5million is a good guestimate
as to how much cash Leeds probably from now to the end of the season to keep
them trading," he said. "The local paper has put the call out
signalling the club needs the money - but how is put together?
"The major fear for fans is that it means maybe yet another player going
out of the door and of course that hasn't been ruled out by the board of
directors. They've always said that no player needed to be sold by January 19
for financial reasons, but of course, all bets are off if we haven't a deal by
Monday.
"The next 72 hours are crucial.
"And if any more players go out of the door then I don't think we need to
wait until May to know what we're dealing with. That would almost inevitably
mean relegation to Division One if we were to lose more star players."
| Leeds United statement - Friday, January 16 2004 |
| The Directors of Leeds United note this mornings press coverage regarding Sheikh Abdulrahman Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa. The Directors reconfirm that they are in continuing, constructive discussions with a number of parties regarding proposals to purchase the Company's business and assets or to inject funds. However, none of these interested parties' proposals contemplates an offer for the Company's shares. In addition they confirm that, to date, the Company has not received any satisfactory evidence from Sheikh Al Khalifa that funds exist to fulfil any proposal currently under discussion between him and the Company. The Directors further confirm that they are continuing discussions with the Company's principal finance creditors with a view to extending the Standstill (as defined in the Company's announcement of 4 December 2003) beyond 19 January 2004. The Board will issue a further statement as soon as practicably possible when the outcome of such discussions are known. |
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