Leeds may be sold if they fail to win promotion
LEEDS UNITED owner Andrea Radrizzani will have to consider selling the club if they are not promoted to the Premier League, Sportsmail understands. The club are third in the Championship and sources say Radrizzani is now ‘all in’ on the gamble of securing top-flight football and an estimated £200million windfall. Without that, the Italian would find it difficult to fund another season geared towards promotion and prized players would have to be sold. Manager Marcelo Bielsa is believed to be paid £3.4million a year and the total cost, including his staff, is £6m. Their contracts run until 2020 but there are break clauses this summer and it is likely Bielsa will leave if Leeds do not go up. Radrizzani could also be forced to sell some or all of his 88 per cent stake. In May of last year he sold a 12 per cent stake to 49ers Enterprises, an
since taking over in 2017 but board members are aware that model cannot be sustained beyond this campaign. Such financial concerns are thought to be the reason behind a club policy to postpone contract talks for key players until the summer. The ramifications of not going up have been made clear to those connected to the club and insiders have noted an increased anxiety to executives on matchdays. Radrizzani pumped £14.5m of his own money into Leeds during the 2016-17 season, as revealed by accounts announced last April, and it is believed he put another £16m in for the 2017-18 campaign. Also, Radrizzani’s British sports broadcast company, Eleven Sports UK, is facing an uncertain future, given it is still only available on desktop, mobile, or tablet. ‘You cannot just keep losing money,’ Radrizzani told the New
York Times in December, in reference to Eleven Sports UK. Those broadcast struggles have had a trickle-down effect on the football club, with Leeds reluctant to commit large fees for new signings in January.