Dubai-owned Leeds Utd posts $3m operating loss

Leeds United Football Club has posted an operating loss of more than £3m, a week after being bought by Dubai-based investors.

As GFH Capital begin their task of building the Championship club back up to former glories, newly released figures showed that turnover was also down 4.9 percent in the year to June 2012.

Results published by the club on its official website show turnover down by more than £1.5m to £31.08m for the period.

The club also posted an operating loss of £3.34m for the year, down from a profit of £939,000 the previous year.

Gate receipts were down by 10.6 percent to £11.3m while the wage bill for players and management, which now represents 41 percent of turnover, jumped by £1.2m to £12.7m.

The club did make a profit of £317,000 after player sales were taken into account. However, this compares to a profit of £3.5m the previous year, the figures showed.

Leeds United Football Club, which is the primary wholly owned subsidiary of Leeds City Holdings Limited, said it employed an average of 213 full-time employees during the period compared to 207 in the year-earlier period. In addition, 667 casual part-time people were employed.

Earlier this month, GFH Capital Limited was formally unveiled as the new owner of Leeds United.

GFH capital executives David Haigh, Salem Patel and Hisham Alrayes have joined the Leeds United board of directors.

With the January transfer window only days away, United manager Neil Warnock has spoken of adding to his squad, and the new owners have given the boss their full support.

Patel previously said: "It will take investment but we wouldn't have bought a club like this if we were not willing to make that investment. We are not going to be spending crazy money but make the investment sustainable and make the club successful."

GFH Capital, a subsidiary of Bahrain-based investment bank Gulf Finance House, in November confirmed its takeover of Leeds United following months of negotiations.

The football club, which last won the English championship in 1992, entered into a one-month transitional period after which GFH Capital became 100 percent owners.