h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.leedsunited.com/page/NewsroomDetail/0,,10273~1084643,00.html

"We are pleased to announce that the board of the Football League Ltd have agreed to transfer the share in the Football League to Leeds United 2007 Ltd.

The Football League have transferred the share in 'exceptional circumstances' and have imposed a 15-point penalty for the start of the 2007/08 season. The club have appealed against this sanction. The timescale for the appeal is not yet known.

The club has received an amount of criticism from supporters for not keeping them up to date with developments during what has been a very difficult time for us all. We appreciate this policy was difficult for fans to accept, but please be assured that this was been done in the best interests of Leeds United which is justified by the return of the share.

We are now planning the appeal and we are able to complete the squad re-building for the 2007/08 season, albeit with only one week to go before our first League One game at Tranmere."

I now actually do want Ken Bates dead. Honestly, that bloke can be hung drawn and quartered and it'd make me laugh.

I do feel for you in a sense Pyscorp....

On the other hand I am sure you realise that there is a bit of mirth here in all.... sorry!

Glad someone's enjoying it. I might see the funny side at some point.

Jst wait till Mu Beta gets round to reading this.

But the Leeds saga is a shame,an shows te mismanagement an ineptitude of some people in the football world.

Although it does look like the future holds more chance of seeing FC United than Man Utd at Elland Road

Well all clubs have bad times.... In the Macauley years toward the end being an Argyle fan were not much fun.

Oh christ. He's going to be insufferable.

And FB, unless you're an Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool/Manyoo fan, football generally isn't much fun

On the positive side, at least Leeds United still exist, and you can get some players in, as opposed to no club at all.

Unless you fncy setting up FC United of Leeds.....

But my problem with any new Leeds club is that I have zero connection with them. I'm Mancunian, so I'm not trekking across the Pennines to watch non-league football. Unless they're Leeds United AFC, I'm not interested.

If Leeds go up, this basically gives me a choice of my local team *shudder*, their Blue rivals, or someone like Bury, Rochdale, Wigan, Bolton or quite probably Altrincham.

Three years ago, I used to take the Mickey out of Leeds with an undertone of deference to the fact that they genuinely were a club of bigger and better status than - say - Gainsborough Trinity.

Now, I don't even have that. Oh joy.

B

My heart bleeds for you Mu

You gotta laugh, haven't you?

**he says, trying to restrain himself from rolling around and beating his fists on the floor**

B

Having been through admin I'm not gonna laugh at this Pys. I feel sorry for the Leeds fans in all this as they are the ones getting punished due to the dubious business practices of others and the punishment being meted out to them obvious hits the loyal supporters.

All the best. Hope you can overcome this rediculous second deduction of points.

DD- How is the deduction ridiculous? The board failed to comply with the rules regarding insolvency- the League would have been within their rights to expel the club. And we can't even use the excuse that it was the previous owners' fault- it's been bought back by the same bunch of shadowy offshore organisations who owned it before.

I feel sorry for the fans, but the Club itself deserves the punishment. They shouldn't benefit from the shoddy way they have behaved and treated their creditors- including public services such as the Polcie and the Inland Revenue. they got the buy-back approved to due toa lot of creditorrs being "football creditors" (who are paid in full) or creditors linked to the offshore funds who own the club (who refused to negotiate with bidders other than Bates

I agree with Egon on this. I do feel sorry for the fans, who had no part in any of the shenanigans. But the level of financial wrongness in this is appalling even by football's standards, and it can't be let go. To say that it stinks is an understatement. Did St Johns Ambulance ever get paid?

And for what it's worth, Leeds don't even figure on my list of most disliked teams (Liverpool, West Ham, Man Utd and Chelsea at the moment, in no particular order). So I'm saving my schadenfreude for now....

As far as I know, despite fans writing to Bates offering to pay off St John's, they never got any official payment of the paltry sum he owed.

Still, 15 points is a tad harsh. 10 and everyone's happy. The IR and FA are happy because we had points deducted and fans are happy because the punishment's been lessened.

As for Bates, well, if he's prosecuted and removed we'd all be happy.

I think it will be reduced to 10 on appeal - which is what should have happened in the first place.

As for Kenny-boy - lets face it if the FA rules meant anything he be declared upfit to be a boot-boy.

Like the others I feel sorry for the fans - but the players and directors just took the money and ran.

How are the tropical fish incidently ?

Bates claims to have eaten them. Unfortunately he didn't choke.

So i read that Leeds' appeal has been rejected and the 15 point penalty will stand.

Bad luck.

According to a "Source", the voting was thus:

1.Do you agree on a sanction - In favour 66 to 4 votes.

2.Do you agree with 15 points deduction - In favour 54 to 16.

Including Stockport County, who thought that 15 points wasn't enough of a sanction. Bless them.

I've always quite admired Stockport for reasons I couldn't hitherto identify.

B