Social media’s a menace, says Bates

THE SCOURGE of online trolls cost Ken Bates’ former club investment from one of the richest man in Great Britain, the ex-Athletic chairman has claimed.

Multi-millionaire businessman Paul Sykes was one of three parties, Bates says, who decided not to pump money into Leeds United as a result of abuse on social media.

While acting as chairman of Athletic back in the 1960s, as a forthright and controversial character Bates attracted plenty of criticism — often hitting back through the press.

“I don’t know of any other town in the country where so-called supporters would advertise two current stand tickets in exchange for two budgerigars, but they did it in the Oldham local newspaper,” said Bates, who sank in £85,000 worth of loans to the club.

Critics will always make themselves heard - but the difference now, says the Monaco-based 83-year-old, is that success is demanded immediately by quick-fingered judges. If it doesn’t arrive, the reaction can be very damaging.

“Football is so different now,” said Bates in an exclusive interview. “In the old days, fans went to watch their team play. Now they go to watch them win. You used to be judged weekly, now it’s hourly.

“Unfortunately social media gives anyone the Dutch courage to slag off people in a way they would never do face-to-face. It has lost Leeds three really good investors.

“I talked to Paul Sykes, who was a Leeds fan, and he told me he didn’t need the aggravation.

“There was Bob Murray, who was chairman at Sunderland but who lived in North Yorkshire. I asked him why that was and he said that when he got away from the ground it meant he wouldn’t get abuse for a week.”

Bates is now watching the continuing drama at Elland Road from afar, having sold the club to Middle East-based private equity group GFH Capital.

That’s where the problems started: Bates claims the money promised failed to materialise, and his wife was forced to stump up the cash to pay the players’ wages.

“When I brought the club out of administration before it was sold on to GFH, we were making up to £3million trading profit a year on player sales,” Bates said. “We thought we had struck lucky with GFH, who we were promised were cash-rich Arabs.

“It took them seven months for the due diligence and the club was frozen. It became increasingly clear they didn’t have as much money as they said they had. When they completed the deal, they had no money at all. My wife lent them £1million to pay the players’ wages, one month.”

While Bates has lots of experience, after running Wigan, Athletic, Chelsea and Leeds, he says GFH’s inexperience left a trail of destruction behind, which Massimo Cellino — disqualified from running club affairs until May 3 — has been left to clear up.

“There was the soccer-mad director (Salem Patel) — he supported Liverpool — who had no idea how to run a club and who ignored all the advice he was given,” Bates added. “They overpaid for players who were brought in at the last minute and it was just a disaster.

“Cellino has come in knowing nothing about English football, as opposed to Italian football, and he is still trying to sort out the mess he found in the club’s books.”

Bates’ stint at Athletic was criticised by his successor Harry Massey for running up unsustainable debts, while at the same time developing a youth team and improving the ground.

While he cut a similarly divisive figure at Leeds, Bates argues that he has left a potent legacy behind in terms of stadium development.

He claims that investing in the facilities at Elland Road averted a potential disaster: “We spent £20million on the ground, as it was a mess,” Bates said. “One of my experts came in from Chelsea and he said the electrics were in such a state, it was another Bradford City waiting to happen.

“The East Stand had never been finished but now, there is a 39,000 Premier League ground ready to go.”

See part 1 of Matthew's interview with Ken Bates for more.