Ken Bates has said he was sacked by GFH from his role as club president after he committed Leeds United, for the next three years, to paying for a private jet to fly him from Monaco to Leeds whenever he needed. The cost to the club of the contract with the corporate aeroplane charter company 247 Jet is thought to be about £500,000 over the three years.
Ken Bates has said he was sacked by GFH from his role as club president after he committed Leeds United, for the next three years, to paying for a private jet to fly him from Monaco to Leeds whenever he needed. The cost to the club of the contract with the corporate aeroplane charter company 247 Jet is thought to be about £500,000 over the three years.
Bates argued it was unfair and ‘ridiculous’ to be sacked for committing the club to the private-jet contract. He said it was saving the club money because it was in pounds sterling, not euros, and he had been advised that, as a director in June, he did have the power to bind the club to the contract. He argued that the new owners were aware of the new arrangement when they undertook due diligence.
Bates said his arrangement with Leeds included ‘certain expenses’ that had not changed in the eight years that he was there. That is believed to have included travelling by private jet between Monaco and Leeds at the club’s expense. That service from 247 – which offers, according to its website, ‘total flexibility, security and privacy’ with ‘no long tedious check-in procedures’ – is understood to have latterly cost Leeds around £120,000 a year.
I suppose one couldn’t see Ken Bates getting on an Easyjet flight from Nice, but meanwhile Leeds face the new season with continuing cash flow challenges.