What Ken Said – 03.08.11 – Saddamned United

Taken from Yorkshire Radio’s interview with Leeds United owner Ken Bates today…

‘Mr Chairman’ speaks to Ben Fry about the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Select Committee’s report into Football Governance (of which you can read TSB’s guide here), including a name-check for one of his favourite tyrants – that’s Saddam Hussein, not Harry Redknapp. There’s also his thoughts on the pre-season win over Newcastle, Jonny Howson being named captain, transfers (or lack of them), the Football League’s new TV deal, the Southampton match/ownership, the fixture computer and the weekly update on the sales figures that aren’t quite as good as last season but are ‘tremendous’.

Ben Fry: Chairman, the MPs’ report into Football Governance was released last week. It mentioned Leeds United’s ownership. What’s your reaction to the report?

Ken Bates: Well I haven’t seen the report yet, I gather it’s 116 pages and it’s on its way to me as we speak so I only know the bits that have been cut out for me by Paul Dews and what I’ve read in the newspapers. Of course, the newspapers’ take on it is varied. As one would expect, The Guardian honed in on Leeds United’s ownership and on the other hand, John Dillon at The Express dismissed it as a trivial matter of no importance so it’s probably actually between the two. When I think about it, this is supposed to be the awe-inspiring, earth-shaking, fearless investigation into football generally and the things I have read so far don’t amount to a row of beans. First of all, they are suggesting for example that nobody should be allowed to serve on the FA council for more than 10 years. Well, if we allow that to happen an awful lot of good experience would be lost. But if that’s good for football then is it good for Parliament? Should it be that MPs should not be allowed to serve anymore than 10 years. After all, in America they have a rule where the President can only serve two terms and the great advantage about that if it is applied to Parliament and you set a minimum age of 30-35, then these MPs who represent the country could actually get a proper job for 10 years and find out what it’s really like in the workplace instead of living gilded, cloistered lives as so many of them do. The next thing, of course, they should be looking into the quest of propriety of MPs behaviour before looking into the propriety of anybody else’s behaviour. Another recommendation of course was they should be two independent chairmen of the FA and the Premier League and probably the Football League and two independent directors. Well that was taken up by the FA on the last recommendation with disastrous results. We had Lord Triesman, who’s a failed politician who became a life peer for no particular achievement as far as I can see, and was disastrous having regards with his indiscretions with a lady he knew over lunch, who promptly bugged his conversation and Lord Mawhinney, who I don’t think contributed very much into the game either. The problem is too many people come in from the outside, coming in for the wrong reasons. Football is like a honeypot which attracts the bees from outside who want to bin on the inside and they contribute very little and much of their work is.. I think  by and large the FA doesn’t do a bad job because it’s got a hopelessly wide remit with regards from girls playing football to boys in the playground right the way up to international football. They’re not perfect, but who is? But by and large, I don’t think they do a bad job. Independent Chairman for the Premier League, why? We had an Independent Chairman before Dave Richards, who was a diaster. He and Lever, if you remember, signed a disastrous TV contract which cost us millions and millions. Richards came from Sheffield Wednesday, he has been in the job for over 10 years now and he has done a bloody good job. I don’t see any point in change for change sake. Then the question of ownership, I notice John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee was very careful to distance himself between the question of Leeds’ ownership and plonked it on the lap of Damian Collins. Now why Damian Collins is carrying such a torch for Leeds when he is an avowed Manchester United supporter living in Kent, where many of them do live, I do not know. I suspect there is a hidden agenda here somewhere or he has a vendetta against myself or the club, I don’t know. But these questions are raised and raised in mind when you think of it. And the suggestion that they should get the Inland Revenue involved is a joke because he obviously doesn’t know how the Inland Revenue work. How they are getting involved with a series of trusts based in Switzerland, I do not know. Obviously Mr Collins is one of those MPs who could do with a job in the real world to find out how it works. I remember Harry Redknapp’s remark when he said that fans wouldn’t care if Saddam Hussein owned the club so long as it was winning games and signing players and I think that applies to most clubs and certainly to Leeds United. The feedback I’ve had from the fans other than the dissidents that have had their nose put out of joint by my style of management is that they are more interested in how the club is run rather than who owns it and Leeds United have a good record in that respect. In fact the committee, what did they say? ‘Financially secure and upwardly mobile’ if that’s what Leeds are doing, one of the few clubs that are, what’s the problem? I own it now, or 70-odd per cent of it anyway, so ownership problem resolved. Let’s get on with running the club, making it even more financially secure and even more upwardly mobile.

BF: Let’s bring it back to playing matters then and a five-goal…

KB: (Interrupts) Yes, it’d make a nice change..

BF: A five-goal thriller against Newcastle on Sunday. Everything seemed to come together. A nice way to finish pre-season. What was the feedback you got from Simon?

KB: Well I get the feedback from Simon and also other people as well. The whole thing is the team played well, one or two newcomers, we have got newcomers, despite what some of the tweeters say. We did well to beat a strong Premiership club. I know they have lost a few players recently and we’ve got the Joey Barton thing but he played on Sunday and didn’t make much difference. On the whole, very heartening and we’re very pleased with the performance and I think everybody would be delighted Billy Paynter broke his duck as we were all willing the ball into the net last season. As you say, nice way to finish it. We’re now in the middle of five days continuous training, which is before we open up against Southampton.

BF: You mention heartening from the performance, you much have been heartened by the level of support this close to the start of the season?

KB: Well I think that everybody is anxious just like me to get back to football at Elland Road and see what’s happening. 20,600 was an excellent return for a friendly attendance. I expect it was one of the biggest in the country. Well done to everybody who came, thank you, and also, of course, it gave everybody an opportunity of seeing the continuing ground improvements that we are doing at Elland Road to make things more comfortable for them when they come.

BF: After the game, Simon confirmed that Jonny Howson will be club captain for the upcoming season. Do you support his appointment and what is it about Jonny that you think he’s the man to lead the club?

KB: Well I gather he had and outstanding game on Sunday but had been Mr Consistent all last season. He leads by example, he’s not a shouter baller but he’s a strong character even though he’s quiet and of course he’s homegrown and there’s nothing more that Yorkshire people like than a local hero. So, I’m delighted for Jonny. There were one or two other players who could well have got the captaincy but I’m pleased that Jonny’s got it. Well done. Hope he lifts the Championship trophy at the end of the season.

BF: Let’s move onto transfers. Is there anything new you can tell us or is it still a case of things going on behind the scenes without wanting to give away too much detail?

KB: Things have been going on behind the scenes. We missed out on one or two players. One player we wanted was based in London and he had the chance to move to a club in the home counties or coming to Yorkshire and he simply didn’t want to up sticks 300 miles when he could commute from his current home with his kids in school, which you can understand. And these sort of things are ones you don’t read about in the newspapers but they all have a factor and bearing on whether a player decides to join Leeds or not. But we have still got several irons in the fire. It doesn’t close until August 31 and we’re working very hard behind the scenes. Also of course, we’re having a continual stream of trialists. We had one very good French boy this week, he’s still with us, but rather thoughtlessly he hadn’t trained during the summer so he’s unfit. We think that when he is fit, he could be a hidden gem and the fact of the matter is, Thorp Arch has a history of producing hidden gems; Somma, Becchio and we think there is a few more in the pipeline. On that line, one very good thing is Lees’ first team debut and I was talking to Simon about him and Simon said he went out as a boy and he came back, having played 80-100 games in the lower divisions and he has come back a man. He’s definitely in our first team squad. So we have high hopes for him. But no, we are still working on signing another two or three players and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

BF: Now late last week, the Football League agreed a record five-year overseas broadcast deal. Is this good for the league and would expect it to raise Leeds United’s profile abroad?

KB: Well, they say it’s record-breaking but they haven’t given us any details. No doubt we’ll get that later but it will raise Leeds’ profile abroad because when you think about it because we’re on TV for, I think, five of our first 11 or 12 games. Obviously we are popular with the broadcasters and we’re a draw overseas so that will help us as we continue to promote our international profile. But already of course, as we know, by the post-match phone-in after a game, the calls are from all over the world. We get more calls from overseas than we do from Yorkshire, which demonstrates our international appeal of the club already.

BF: Let’s start focusing on the opening game of the season against Southampton. What do you think to that opening day fixture? Although it’s a club who has been promoted, many see it as a very tough start.

KB: Well it will be a tough start because Southampton came up in style. They won automatic promotion. They spent quite a lot of money last season. I’m not quite sure about the ownership there but originally the famous Liebherr cranes that are the tall tower cranes you seen on building sites, well Southampton was bought out of their misery by that gentleman who unfortunately died prematurely and somebody else has bought it but I don’t know who but they have been spending a bit of money. I think they have a good side and it will be a tough game and those who don’t have tickets will be able to watch it live on the box at 5pm on Saturday. I think it will be a hard game. The Mail on Sunday forecast we win and the Daily Mail forecast we lose, so you pays your penny you takes your choice. But if we come back from there with a win or draw we will have done very well.

BF: That of course is followed by three home games in eight days, two in the league and the Carling Cup. It’s a lot to ask of the fans in just eight days, isn’t it?

KB: Well it is. I mean the Carling Cup you can’t forecast but I do not understand this silly bloody system that the league have got whereby you play two home games together consecutively within the space of four days then you don’t have a game for nearly three weeks. It’s bad on the fans and it’s bad, I think, on the run of the team. It makes me laugh, we have these bloody computers to work out these fixtures, I always said this after the war there used to be a father and son in Darwin with a pencil and paper and they would do it ideally home-away-home-away-home-away. Now this modern technology, 60 years on, we can’t get it right. I know there are some complications where they have to consult police and this and that and the other, but this is not good. We’re not going to have a home game over Christmas. That’s a first. I can never remember a club not having a home game over Christmas. It’s quite ridiculous.

BF: Let’s finish with an update…

KB: (Interrupts) Maybe if we had an Independent Chairman he’d sort it all out.

BF: Let’s finish with an update on Season Tickets and Memberships. Would you expect a surge as soon as the football kicks off?

KB: Well I’m not so sure there is going to be a surge in Season Tickets because they have been coming in steadily all summer. For example, as of last night we’ve got 12,924 Season Tickets. Our total last year was 13,080. I think we only budgeted for 12,500 this year so I think the money has virtually come in. People know there’s no advantage to leaving it until the last minute anyway. Memberships – tremendous. They are still pouring in and as I speak we’ve 31,300 which is very good indeed. Our programme subscriptions are now 581, we’ve sold 431 away season tickets and our corporate season tickets are looking very well as well. So the support is there. We have 22,000 already for Middlesbrough, 18,000 for Hull and Bradford we’re 13,000 already and that’s a local derby of course so should be a late surge on that one. On the financial side and the support side, it’s looking good. I know one or two fans have been stirrings of discontent about the lack of signings in the newspaper but we don’t talk about what we are going to do. We don’t hold press conferences. I was watching the one at West Brom yesterday. The number of inane questions that Houllier (he means Roy Hodgson) had to field was ridiculous. We just get on with it and do it. After all, we are ‘financially secure and upwardly mobile’.