Leeds United Says It Lost $79 Million
Despite the evident wealth of the English Premier League, one of its teams, Leeds United, announced Tuesday pretax losses of more than $79 million in the 2003 fiscal year, worst ever for a British club.
Chairman John McKenzie, who took charge in April, blamed the previous administration of Peter Ridsdale.
“Leeds United lived the dream -- and I inherited the nightmare,” he said.
The club’s financial troubles began when it spent more than $160 million on players over several years in an attempt to join Arsenal and Manchester United as regular participants in the lucrative European Champions League.
The acquisition of top talent increased player salaries, which last year totaled $90.56 million and swallowed 88% of the club’s income.
The team, however, is in next-to-last place in the league and is facing relegation unless under-fire Coach Peter Reid -- the team’s third in three years -- can turn matters around.
The club has sold nine top players in the last 15 months and that has eased the financial strain somewhat, but those leading players who remain, among them strikers Alan Smith and Mark Viduka and goalkeeper Paul Robinson, face pay cuts if they stay with the club.
“Players are pretty realistic,” McKenzie said hopefully, announcing also that he would revert to a part-time position and that Trevor Birch, former Chelsea chief executive, would take over the running of the club.
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Drug Probe Ends
Authorities in Malmo, Sweden, have ended their investigation into the possible use of banned drugs by players from Sporting Lisbon of Portugal. No charges will be filed.
Police confiscated syringes found in the players’ hotel rooms before Sporting’s 1-0 UEFA Cup victory over Malmo earlier this month. The Portuguese said the syringes had been used strictly for medicinal purposes, to inject vitamins.
“They were tested for banned doping substances, drugs and narcotics, but nothing was found,” Swedish prosecutor Mats Svensson said.
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Coelho Stays On
South Korea’s Coach Humberto Coelho was given a lukewarm vote of confidence by the Korean Football Assn. despite losses to Vietnam and Oman last week in qualifying play for the 2004 Asian Cup.
“Coelho will maintain his place until next July, just as the contract he has signed [states],” a KFA official said in Seoul.
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No Mas, Says Vivas
Argentine international defender Nelson Vivas, 34, said he was quitting the sport after being criticized for his play by River Plate fans, who also have expressed unhappiness at his connections with Buenos Aires rival Boca Juniors.
“I am fed up with the lack of respect,” said Vivas, who played for Boca Juniors and later for Inter Milan and Arsenal in Europe.
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German Bans
German international midfielder Sebastian Kehl was handed a five-match Bundesliga ban by the German Football Assn. (DFB) after he purposely kicked VfL Bochum’s Thomas Zdebel during a league match Sunday.
Kehl, 23, who plays for struggling Borussia Dortmund, missed the first six weeks of the German season while serving a ban imposed after he had shoved the referee during the final of the German League Cup in July.
Dortmund said it would appeal the decision and that Kehl would be fined.
The DFB also banned Hertha Berlin’s Dutch coach, Huub Stevens, for two games and find him $8,800 for trading punches and insults with Leverkusen striker Ulf Kirsten after a loss two weeks ago.
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Quick Passes
Japanese international midfielder Shinji Ono, Asia’s player of the year in 2002, signed a one-year contract extension with Feyenoord of the Dutch league that will keep him with at the Rotterdam club until 2007.... Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Scholes will be sidelined for a month after undergoing groin surgery.
Times wire services contributed to this report.
