Nearly 20,000 now…
The following article has been submitted by petition organisers for inclusion on this blog, and adapted by myself for publication here.
One final push for the petition!
At the time of writing the petition has been signed by 19,599 fans. It would be great to get it over the 20,000 mark. A massive 85 countries around the world are represented by those who have signed the petition!
The petition can be found here and we urge all your readers to take a look and, if they agree with the sentiment, sign, share on Facebook and RT on twitter! If everyone who has signed can find another fan to sign we would be approaching 40,000! Just click on the link below:
Please – Sign Here!!
If we can help show the following aims are being achieved, then we can say with justice that the petition has been a success:
a) To make clear the sense of injustice and the strong feelings of many Leeds fans
b) To bring what many fans feel is extremely unfair treatment of Leeds United by the Football League to mass media attention
c) To put additional pressure on the Football League to think again as to whether they are really acting in the club’s best interests
We ask the FL to look again at the FPP test and to ask themselves if it is truly fit for purpose, especially for an owner in situ. There are directors and owners of other clubs who have done far worse than Massimo Cellino. The crux of the matter is that he is now an owner in situ and the rules the FL developed were to assess potential owners prior to purchase. Their sole aim in this matter is to assess if that person is fit and proper to run a football club – nothing else. What better way to assess this in the Leeds United case than by monitoring how Cellino is running the club, rather than looking at old evidence to make a decision? Indeed, Cellino would be able to run any club in Italy, or be a director/owner of any other UK company. Why should these rules be so different? Are the FL really acting in the best interests of Leeds United by asking for Cellino to resign – only for him to be able to take his place again in March? Isn’t this actually just needless disruption for the sake of it, seemingly calculated to destabilise the League’s biggest club?
There is another extremely important point to make here. Those that vote on the Football League are not impartial – not by any stretch of the imagination. Financially the FL are better off with Leeds United in it. Also, other clubs have a better chance of succeeding if Leeds United are sanctioned. Sean Harvey was 100% correct not to vote – but we feel that NONE of the voters (chairman of competing clubs) are impartial. It should ALL be decided upon by completely independent parties. You wouldn’t find relatives of the victim on a court Jury so why are chairman of rival clubs asked to make a decision on Leeds United?
It is not as simple as Cellino resigning and coming back in March as there are similar court cases on the horizon, so the question has to be asked as to whether the rules are truly fit for purpose. Whether he has or hasn’t paid the correct import duty/tax on a boat or car really shouldn’t be relevant as to whether he can do a good job for Leeds in running the club. He ran Calgiari in Italy for over 20 years! We need the Football League to take a good look at what they are trying to achieve and whether their current rules achieve it. They say he is ‘dishonest’ and therefore should be banned. How is tax duty on a boat / car worse than those that live as a tax exile in order to pay less taxes throughout their lives! What about the many other directors of clubs who have a far more chequered past than Cellino! Let’s not forget that there are the likes of money-launderers and convicted rapists among these seemingly untouchable gentlemen…
If Cellino (and his family) were to be forced out, then it is pure speculation as to what would happen next. We just hope the club would be sold without going into administration, otherwise there is a worry that the likes of Bates/Harvey could be sniffing around again and the vast majority of United fans would agree this would not be good for LUFC. There are constant rumours of others ready to take over Leeds but Cellino is the only person who wanted the club so badly he was willing to sign anything to make sure it happened – no one else was willing to pay the asking price. They clearly didn’t want the club as much as he did. Some may say he shouldn’t have signed the original Share Purchase Agreement on those terms or he should have done more in the way of Due Diligence. Had he done that who knows where we would have been now. GFH would probably still own 100% of Leeds. No one else wanted the club enough to pay the asking price. Cellino has shown he is passionate about Leeds. Whilst he has made mistakes he deserves a chance to take this great club to where he wants to take it – The Premier League and then onto the Champions League.
All of the points raised above need to be aired in public and then addressed by the authorities currently engaged in a determined campaign to oust Cellino. This latest push to get the support for the petition over 20,000 and onwards towards 25,000 is a big step on the way to obtaining the kind of national publicity necessary to make a difference – to have a real effect on the issues currently clouding Leeds United’s season.
If you haven’t yet signed – PLEASE do so, then share this widely and ask any friends to sign also. If you have signed – then please share the petition among as many people as you can in order to get even more support.
Leeds United – your club – needs you.
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
Signed.
let me just add a very merry christmas and a happy new year to you and yours rob
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Nice one, Mr. O – and the very best of seasonal greetings to you and your family too. Here’s to a better 2015 – MOT
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There’s about as much chance of this working as of Leeds being awarded a penalty at the Stretford End by the late Alan Hardaker in the 93th minute of a title decider. But I tip my hat to the organisers. The League will do all it can to damage Leeds, because we are the only club in what is now a truly execrable division with a degree of cachet and genuinely global support. And we bring huge and profitable away support to one and all.
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Just signed, from the Far East Singapore! We have already made our intent known- We are Leeds UNITED GLOBALLY. To you Rob and family and all reading here-Have a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2015,
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I also salute the time and effort of the organisers of this petition, however, I must confess to being very disappointed by the underwhelming response by our so called massive fan base. I am sure that I am not alone in having canvassed 5 more signatures and wonder why so many of our club’s loyal supporters have not taken a couple of minutes of their time to read and sign the petition from the comfort of their armchair? In the famous words of Delia “Where are you!!?”.
Unless we can at least double the number of signatures the FL could simply turn around and say “Well, (based on your average attendance), it appears that you don’t even have the full backing of your own club’s supporters with many thousands not even prepared to support or endorse your argument, why should we bother wasting any time considering its contents?”.
If Leeds United reached the FA Cup final in May, wouldn’t there be at least double this number of people applying for tickets, or have we actually just become an average Championship club following 12 years of broken promises and disappointment?
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I have signed the petition but I don’t think it will do anything, just look at the facts look at people who have serious inferdelerts there still in charge but MC is only guilty of a parking fine. We won’t get any help from the other clubs because pressure on Leeds gives them breathing space.
On a better note it will soon be Xmas so to you all have a Great Xmas and have a happy new year.
Barry
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There is no law that says a man must pay tax, it is statute law and therefore only applies if one consents to it, hence the stance of large multi national companies who choose how much tax they pay. Consent is assumed (making an ass of u and me) until officially obtained in court through the public gallery and the respondent standing when the grudge enters therefore giving him/her jurisdiction. Cellino is guilty of nothing!!!
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Beautiful logic – irrefutable.
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Nearly 20 000 signatures is truly wonderful snd shows solid support. For God’s sake most of the Royal family would struggle to get that many. It will not make any difference because the FL’s intention is to damage us.
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It will make us Leeds fans feel good, and there’s a good chance that Football league chairmen will notice the petition, but we must remember that 1/4 MILLION people clicked “like” on the BringBackOurGirls Facebook page and it achieved a big fat NOTHING. Similarly, the GetKony and Kony2012 campaigns were huge but ultimately futile.
Of course, the Football League will ignore the plight of everyone whose livelihoods and happiness depend on Leeds United, and instead enjoy our collective impotence in the face of their assumed and very obviously undeserved moral superiority.
Direct action is the course to take but – as you have previously pointed out Rob – this probably involves dark times for Leeds United fans. However as the saying goes, it is always darkest, just before dawn.
Merry Christmas Rob & your family.
Martin in Melbourne.
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Having said that, I HAVE signed the petition, as I believe that to failure to do so can look like an acceptance of our fate.
We should be loud, proud and busy protesting about the biased treatment being handed out to our President, which is having a bad effect on our Club. You know, the best-supported, most-televised team with possibly the Football league’s ONLY global profile…. you couldn’t make it up.
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All the best of seasonal happiness to you and yours Martin – MOT
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I was really gung ho about mass dialing the league with our software…but realized it might cost a few hundred dollars. So I just signed instead. I would have gone to Cellino for an expense reimbursement but then he’s not writing the checks foe a while.
(or is he? :)…hmmm…)
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