David Haigh: I'm not done with Leeds United

Speaking to the YEP about his spell at the club under ex-owners GFH, Mr Haigh, who was convicted of fraud last year, hinted at wanting to help return the “amazing” Whites to the Premier League.

David Haigh resigned as managing director of Leeds United in April 2014, three days after the takeover by Italian businessman Massimo Cellino.

Mr Haigh is reluctant to criticise the current Leeds owner, though he suggests the club is a “millstone round his neck at the moment”.

“He had a difficult situation to deal with, and it has not been easy,” he said. “Leeds has issues that needs to be dealt with, and I think Massimo has found that as well. What can be said is that the club is moving along.

“I think he has faced great challenges, which a lot of fans won’t realise. When you buy something new like that, and you have all the passion that he had at the beginning, and I know he had passion because I was there with him for the first few months.”

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Despite his experiences at the club, Mr Haigh insists Leeds United remains “unfinished business” for him as he ponders his future.

He said: “I am going to work in financing sports clubs and various other things. I am going to expand Sport Capital in terms of financing deals, and financing sports clubs and things like that, as well as doing a lot of human rights work, to raise the profile of the awful things that go on in places like Dubai and Bahrain and places like that.

“I have got to fight my legal cases, so I will be busy with that, but Leeds to me, however long it takes, is unfinished business. It’s an amazing club, it needs to be not where it is.

“It now needs that big push. If you have clubs like Burnley going up and down in the Premier League, why is Leeds still where we are?”