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Dramatic fall from grace as Haigh threatens Leeds

7/5/2014

 
When David haigh first appeared on the scene as the face of GFH-C, it seemed Leeds United finally had an owner to be proud of.  After years of Ken Bates shaking his fist at the camera and providing embarrassing, and sometimes illegal soundbites, the sharp suited, always smiling, locally rooted Haigh was quickly and affectionately nicknamed 'Beeston Dave'.

Scepticism existed in some quarters - Beeston Dave pretty much fitted into the mould vacated by Peter Ridsdale a decade earlier, and we all know how that turned out, but generally speak, David Haigh was professional, articulate and connected well with the fans.

His tenure started well, and when GFH-C ran into money worries, Haigh was the man to sort it, mounting a bid together with Andrew Flowers to buy the club.  He even secured funding to pump into Leeds to pay the bills and keep us solvent.

A few alarm bells started to ring when the Flowers bid faltered and Haigh jumped in with Cellino in the blink of an eye, and even appeared to be entertaining Mike Farnan for a while.  Haigh seemed intent on dumping anyone that was no use to him.  Around the same time, the wheels didn't start to fall off the Haigh PR machine - it was up on bricks and none existent.

Still Haigh persevered, and the Cellino buy-out had Haigh firmly in the frame as CEO in the post GFH-C world.  An important part of his willingness to negotiate with Cellino perhaps?

But Cellino was having none of it, and with virtually his first action, he dismissed with Haighs services and Beeston Dave left Leeds.

Roll forward a few weeks, and David Haigh and the company he formed to lend Leeds United the money to survive, has now served a statutory demand for £957,000, which Leeds have yet to pay, and a winding up order, scheduled to be heard in the High Court on 9th June 2014.  The very man who proclaimed he was helping the club by securing funds, is now using those same funds to try to close the club down.

Cellino is quiet on the matter.  He has already seen off demands for payment from Andrew Flowers and HMRC, and paid the outstanding wage bill, but his response to the latest demand is unknown.  Questioning the validity of the debt is likely to be one reason that it hasn't simply been paid as Cellino unpicks the web of debt and strange accounting left behind by GFH-C.

But for Beeston Dave, the man who appeared to be a calm, professional and passionate Director, with Leeds at his heart, has completed his downfall, and will simply be remembered as yet another individual who tried to use Leeds United to line his own pockets and personal interest.
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Chareose
7/5/2014 06:23:23

The truth is GFH ran us on loans and debt in order to make a profit out of us. They could have funded the club but refused to in order to declare a 4 million profit on the club........... Its also possible that Leeds was used by members of GFH as a source of cash..... So this is a completely different concept to running a club for a profit, its about screwing it for money and doing a runner

Patrick Maloney
7/5/2014 06:25:07

I knew he was a prick from the word go ,so low he'd crawl under a snakes belly with a top hat on....pure scum

phil lum
7/5/2014 06:32:42

What a complete a###hole you are haigh, you lent the money to gfh not cellino. So go and chase them for it and never set foot in ellend road again, you worthless excuse for a surporter

Uniteds21
7/5/2014 06:45:04

Either the loan is valid, paperwork in order etc and it has to be repayed (like Flowers) or it is not! Eitherway I'm sure MC knew about it before he bought the club and it must have been factored into the calculation. This is just a routine commercial exercise with posturing on both sides. Lets get back to the important business - another season for Brown & Pugh any one?

PAUL W
7/5/2014 08:07:05

If Leeds didn't already have such a huge, money draining squad, I would give Brown and Pugh a new 1 year contract, but it is now an ideal situation to let all of the players go, that are out of contract, just to reduce the squad and wage bill.
As for the Haigh situation, I don't know how he has got the nerve to demand 1 million from Cellino, after Cellino has been lending millions to Haigh and GFH for months, just to keep Leeds going on a month to month basis.
Everybody knows that, Haigh and GFH could not run a bath, never mind run the biggest football club outside the Premiership and GFH are a finance house with no money, which seems absolutely crazy and pointless for a company, who call themselves Gulf Finance House.
Where was the Football Leagues "fit and proper test", when GFH were trying to buy Leeds and why were they allowed to buy Leeds with NO future money to run the club on a month to month basis.
The whole situation has been an embarrassing shambles that could have closed Leeds United down.

nick a
7/5/2014 12:04:04

How does purchasing a club work. Do you buy as seen like in a car boot?
If debts are not declared by gfh is cellino liable?
Are the debts not 25% owned by gfh and surely they can not just get another loan against the club to pay their debt? Surely then Cellino could sack them and not pay their wages if they do not bring anything to the club?

jeff
14/5/2014 20:23:10

We made a grave mistake with this past mob it shudve been K DODD wedve never paid a scent in tax SQWILLIONS for squad money.

cork leeds
15/5/2014 01:33:37

he nothing short of a tramp. looking after his wallet just like bates. two of them should be barred from yorkshire. grabbers

yorkshireboy
15/5/2014 05:11:14

I can tell you that a pal of mine who works at ER has not been paid today as the leeds united bank accounts have been frozen due to the impending winding up order .....


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