| Ken Bates | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kenneth William Bates 4 December 1931 Ealing, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | chairman and owner of Leeds United A.F.C. former owner and chairman of Chelsea F.C. |
| Spouse | Suzannah |
Kenneth William Bates (born 4 December 1931) is a British businessman and football executive. The current chairman and now owner of Leeds United AFC, Bates was previously chairman and majority shareholder of Chelsea FC from 1982 until 2003.
After a short stint as chairman of Oldham Athletic, Bates bought struggling, debt-ridden Second Division side Chelsea for £1 in 1982. During his tenure he helped the club win a long-running battle with property developers who were attempting to evict them from their Stamford Bridge home. By the end of his reign Chelsea were regularly finishing in the top six of the Premier League, and had won their first major trophies since the 1970s, although had a debt burden of around £80m.[1] In July 2003, he sold the club to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich from whom he received £140 million, leading to a £17 million (net) profit.
In January 2005, Bates bought a 50% stake in Leeds United, another club struggling under a heavy debt burden. In May 2007, Bates' tenure saw Leeds go into administration (with unpaid debts of some £35 million) and suffer relegation to the third tier of English football. The following month, a consortium led by him bought the Club back from the Administrators, via offshore companies, for £1.5 million. After the Administration, the Club was considered to be "debt free".[2] The Club regained Championship status in 2010 and, on 3 May 2011, in anticipation of promotion to the British football Premier League (not subsequently realised) Bates confirmed, according to the BBC, that he had become the sole owner of Leeds United.
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Bates was born in Ealing in 1931. His mother died shortly afterwards and his father absconded, so he was raised by his grandparents in a council flat. He grew up supporting Queens Park Rangers but was unsuccessful in pursuing a playing career in football. He made his personal fortune in the haulage industry and later moved into quarrying, ready-mix concrete and dairy farming. He was involved with various other enterprises during the 1960s and 1970s, including a project on the British Virgin Islands and setting up the Irish Trust Bank, which was completed in 1976, leaving thousands of investors out-of-pocket.[3] Twice married (present wife, Suzannah), he has five children. He spent five years as chairman of Oldham Athletic during the 1970s and also had a spell at Wigan Athletic.
He currently resides in Monaco as a tax exile. He is however, under UK law, allowed to visit Britain for a maximum of 90 days in a calendar year.[4]
Bates purchased Chelsea F.C. in 1982 for £1. When he purchased the club they were in serious financial trouble, and threatened with relegation to the Third Division, as well as being tarnished by a notorious hooligan element among their support. He fought (and, through sheer persistence, eventually won) a long-running legal battle with property developers, Marler Estates, who had purchased a substantial portion of the freehold of Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's home ground. He re-united the freehold with the club (and thus secured its future) after Marler's bankruptcy following a market crash, which allowed him to do a deal with their banks and create the Chelsea Pitch Owners, an organisation set-up to stave off future developers and attempted to make the club more financially viable.
Bates spent 21 years at Chelsea, during which time he attracted the headlines on many occasions (many times with the controversial headlines that the club could have done without) and employed no fewer than nine managers.[5][6] His match-day programme notes, in which he often attacked various individuals, were also controversial. In 2002 he was sued for libel by Chelsea supporter David Johnstone after describing fans' group, the Chelsea Independent Supporters Association, as parasites; Bates eventually settled out of court.[7]
During the 1990s, he was involved in a bitter dispute with Chelsea benefactor and vice-chairman, Matthew Harding, over the club's future direction, which led to Harding being banned from the Chelsea boardroom. The dispute was ultimately only ended by Harding's death in a helicopter crash in October 1996. Bates sparked further controversy by later describing Harding as an "evil man" the following year.[8]
By the end of his chairmanship Stamford Bridge had been substantially refurbished and modernised, while he had become (at the time) Chelsea's most successful chairman. The club had won several major trophies and were consistently finishing in the top six of the Premiership, with a top-class playing squad containing the likes of Gianfranco Zola and Marcel Desailly. However, its future was threatened by an estimated debt burden of £80 million, yet It was secured against the clubs ground, Stamford Bridge. In 2003 he sold the club to Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich, for a sum of £140million making a £17million profit. Bruce Buck the current Chairman was in charge of the clubs sale to Roman Abramovich. After the takeover Bates was investigated by the FSA for allegedly owning undeclared shares in Chelsea Village plc, but the case was eventually dropped.[9] He stayed on as club chairman until March 2004, when he announced his resignation. Within a couple of weeks of his departure he was back in the limelight as he wrote a one off column in the Bolton Wanderers matchday programme, incidentally and somewhat ironically against Chelsea.
Bates was an active member of the Football Association Executive and was involved in the early stages of the project to rebuild Wembley Stadium and was appointed chairman of Wembley National Stadium Ltd in 1997. He resigned in 2001, citing a lack of support from the board.[10] Irked at the lack of progress, he later suggested that the best way to move the project forward was to shoot then-Minister for Sport, Kate Hoey.[11]
In January 2005, after failing in a bid to invest in Sheffield Wednesday, Bates became the principal owner and chairman of then struggling Championship team, Leeds United purchasing 50% of the club. He was quoted as saying that he wanted "one last challenge".
Bates had a dispute with former club, Chelsea, having accused them of "tapping-up" three Leeds youth players, accusations denied by Chelsea.[12] Chelsea in turn reported Bates to the FA for his comment that the current Chelsea directors are "a bunch of shysters from Siberia", an alleged anti-semitic remark about Abramovich, something denied by Bates.[13] Upon hearing that Chelsea had reported him, Bates said "I haven’t laughed so much since Ma caught her tits in the mangle."[14] The FA also agreed with Bates stating that he had no case to answer.[15] His own club Leeds have themselves come under scrutiny after non-league team Farsley Celtic accused Leeds of improperly signing youngsters from them.[16] The case brought against Chelsea was eventually dropped after the two clubs agreed to a settlement privately.[17]
Bates plans to eventually re-purchase Leeds' home stadium, Elland Road, and the Thorp Arch training-ground.[18]
In May 2007, with Leeds United entering administration, it was announced that KPMG acting as the administrator had agreed to sell the club to a newly-formed company called Leeds United Football Club Limited of which Bates is one of three directors. During the summer he became unpopular with groups of fans. Protests were held at games demanding that the Chairman should resign.
During Bates' time as chairman at Leeds United he has worked with 4 managers (not including numerous caretaker managers in between managers leaving). Kevin Blackwell was the manager when Bates joined Leeds and was sacked after playoff final failure and a disappointing league position during the following season. Dennis Wise was then hired to replace Kevin Blackwell, but after being the man in charge of Leeds being relegated to League 1 (for the first time in their entire history), Wise decided to join Newcastle United in a non managerial role despite Leeds' good start to the season (despite a fifteen point deduction).
Gary McAllister was the man appointed to replace Wise, McAllister was able to guide Leeds to the League 1 playoff final (despite the 15 point deduction) but a 1-0 loss to Doncaster saw Leeds banished to League 1 for yet another year. In the 2008-09 season Leeds were one of the pre season favourites to promotion and after a good start their form faltered dramatically, and after a run of five straight defeats (including a one nil loss to Histon in the Fa Cup), Bates decided to sack McAllister. On the 23rd December Leeds United hired Simon Grayson as their new manager.[19]
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Viscount Chelsea |
Chelsea F.C. chairman 1982 – 2004 |
Succeeded by Bruce Buck |
| Preceded by Gerald Krasner |
Leeds United A.F.C. chairman 2005 – present |
Incumbent |