Bates tilt at foreign owners
With his former clubs Leeds and Chelsea playing tomorrow, Ken Bates’ passion for the game remains unabated at nearly 90
Retired businessman Ken Bates, whose former clubs Leeds and Chelsea meet tomorrow at Elland Road, has hit out at the influence of foreign owners on the Premier League – despite him having sold the London club to the Russian Roman Abramovich.
Ken Bates now celebrates his birthday four times a year. At his home in Monaco, the former Chelsea and Leeds United chairman marks the anniversary every quarter, during a pandemic in which the perception of time has changed.
His wife Suzannah picks up the phone initially, as Bates is having a massage. The line goes dead for what seems like an age, but when his gruff voice does finally bark a greeting it is worth the wait. Bates will be 90 later this year, but his views on football are not mellowing: everything from foreign owners to a lack of home-grown on-field talent are in his sights.
“I thought you called to wish me happy birthday for last Thursday,” he says. “I was 89 years and three months. I’m determined to live to a certain age, which I won’t tell you, and count off months. In June I’ll be 89 and a half.”
Bates retains a keen interest in English football and his old clubs in particular. That makes tomorrow something of a red-letter day, as Leeds and Chelsea play each other at Elland Road in the league for the first time in 17 years. “I would like them both to win and get three points. They’ve been great rivals. If they stick to the football it should be a great afternoon,” Bates says. “I always look out for Chelsea and Leeds results. Then after I’ve had another drink I look out for Oldham, Wigan and Partick Thistle.”
Bates has owned other clubs, but his 21-year reign at Chelsea is his legacy, from purchasing them for £1 to selling to Roman Abramovich in 2003. Bates left a team who had just finished in the top four but who were considered cup specialists; under Abramovich they have become Premier League and Champions League winners, and one of the European elite.
The two decades under Bates were not without controversy – many fans never forgave him for threatening to erect electric fences at Stamford Bridge to deter hooligans – and his time was also marked by a bitter feud with director Matthew Harding, who died in a helicopter crash returning from a game at Bolton in 1996. “He was a con man,” says Bates. “But we rebuilt Chelsea and were quite pleased.”
The moment that stands out for Bates was at the 1998 Uefa Super Cup. It would be another 14 years before Chelsea won the Champions League, but on that evening they had beaten the European champions and could lay claim to being the continent’s best side.
“Su and I were standing in the executive box at Monaco Stadium at around 9 o’clock,” he says. “The stadium was empty except for Chelsea fans in the corner.
“We had just beaten Real Madrid 1-0 – we won the Cup Winners’ Cup, they won the Champions League. I said to Suzannah, ‘Listen to the quiet, this is pleasant’.
“We were champions of Europe and 16 years before we were bankrupt. We couldn’t pay the players’ wages. It hasn’t been a bad journey. I’ve led a life outside football that has been interesting. That night was particularly pleasant.”
While Chelsea were left in good hands with Abramovich, Bates sees worrying signs from other foreign owners – fears which bubbled to the surface during last autumn’s Project Big Picture discussions and the radical proposals to transform English football. “Manchester United owned by Americans. Liverpool owned by other Americans. The first thing they said was let’s reduce the Premier League by two clubs. LET those two resign,” Bates says. “Get out of it. Nobody asked for them to come. The great thing about English football is you kick off in August and all start even.
“What you did 20 years ago has nothing to do with what you do today. The trouble is that the FA are very weak. I found that when I was on the FA council and the FA board. They should have introduced rules
‘We were champions of Europe and 16 years before were bankrupt – could not pay the wages’
preventing foreign ownership of football clubs.”
When he took charge at Leeds in 2005, the club were on their knees – relegated from the Premier League the previous year and in financial meltdown. When Su asked why he was so determined to re-enter the football bear pit, his reply was typically to the point: “They are too great a club to go bust.”
“When I took over Elland Road was falling apart. It was falling down,” he says. “I was surprised we got a safety certificate for playing. When we left it had been totally refurbished. The East Stand had been properly rebuilt. The Centenary Pavilion, we rebuilt. We had a 38,000-capacity stadium, and it was a Premier League ground ready for a Premier League team. We got it last year.”
His eight-year tenure was turbulent, featuring relegation to the third tier for the first time in the club’s history, a spell in administration, five managers (not including caretakers) and a promotion back to the Championship, before he sold to Bahraini businessman Salah Nooruddin, who became chairman.
That remains a source of regret, although he is thrilled at seeing
Leeds back at the top level. “I’m delighted because I always felt they underachieved in the past,” he says. “They are the unofficial capital of Yorkshire when you think about it, and like Manchester have a lot of competition in Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster, Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United. Anyway, they are back where they belong, and I’m very pleased that they are holding their own.”
On keeping football money within the UK, Bates recalls a saying borrowed from Alan Sugar, from when the Premier League started. “He said it’s like prune juice, it’ll go in at the top and go out with the players,” he says.
Bates had a role in the Premier League selling broadcast rights to
Sky, breaking the stranglehold of terrestrial television on live football. He tells a story about meeting Rupert Murdoch over the deal. “The meeting to seal it behind the establishment’s back,” Bates calls it. “We had smoked salmon sandwiches and champagne. I said to my wife as I left, ‘I’m going to ask for £30million. That should crack it.’ Suzannah shouted, ‘No! Ask for £50million.’ I thought about it all the way to London. Look what it is now.”
Keeping the money within English football is the greatest concern, which Bates would solve with a restructure of taxing. “Too much money goes overseas, and they don’t pay any tax,” he says. “The Government should introduce tax for any payments overseas for transfer fees, players’ agents, image rights or any of that, 25 to 30 per cent. The other thing, they should charge outgoing transfer fees against tax. That will bring down the transfer fees, reduce the number of foreign players coming in and let the English players play in their English league.”
It is a radical proposal, and one that will have as many detractors as admirers – but you get the sense that Ken Bates would not have it any other way.