A former captain of England’s Leeds United has confirmed he is part of a consortium looking to buy into the professional football club.
South African Lucas Radebe, who played for the second tier side between 1994 and 2005, was part of a group that saw a bid to acquire a stake in the club rejected by owner GFH Capital on Saturday.
“I can confirm that I am part of a consortium which has submitted a preliminary indication of interest regarding the acquisition of a stake in Leeds United,” Radebe said in a statement on his official website.
“We would like the opportunity to explain both the substance of our proposal, and our strategy for working with GFH Capital to continue the rebuilding process at the club,” he added.
GFH Capital bought Leeds United in December last year following lengthy negotiations, but sold more than half of its 100 percent holding less than six months later.
GFH Capital, a unit of Bahrain’s Gulf Finance House, offloaded a 10 percent stake to Bahrain-based International Investment Bank earlier this year and its second quarter financial statement showed it had now sold a total of more than half the shares.
A financial statement did not say who the buyer was, specifying only that it had made a gain of $776,000 on the sale and was now deconsolidating Leeds results from its own.
The company paid $80.4m last year to buy Leeds from previous owner Ken Bates, reported by British media to have been sacked as lifetime president of the club in July over his use of a private jet to travel to matches.
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