Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear on season ticket update, legal 'bedlam' and Marcelo Bielsa's struggle

The free transfer of my programme notes to the YEP has meant that three years of literary labours have finally been rewarded, with readership smashing through the double-digit barrier.

And whilst the correspondence it provoked was limited, it was universally from supporters asking how they could help the club or help the club help the community at this dark time.

Nowhere has this been better evidenced than through our work with neighbourhood support network Holbeck Together, Leeds City Council and His Church who have quickly partnered with the Leeds United Foundation to set up a logistical programme to deliver food to frontline health workers and those who most need it in one of Leeds’ most challenged wards.

Everyone associated with the club should be proud of our Foundation staff who have repurposed our kitchens, commandeered club vehicles and donned PPE to provide this service.

Unsurprisingly, supporters have also continued to step up and support the club financially.

The open extension of the Season Ticket renewal window has now seen 98 per cent of supporters renew [incredibly, given the circumstances, higher than at this point last season] and 8,000 fans have committed early to the cause by signing up to a Membership.

I know some sections of the fan base are concerned over the financial robustness of our club based on the urgency to get this income in but, like many sound and well-run businesses across Europe, our cashflows simply don’t allow for the almost total and unexpected cessation of all our revenues streams mid fiscal. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the squads at Barcelona and Juventus were quick to follow our team in offering to take a wage deferral.

Importantly, this Sunday sees the 20th anniversary of the tragic deaths of Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus who died supporting their beloved Leeds United.

I know that the memories of Chris and Kev live on in the hearts of all Leeds United supporters but this weekend, without a game, we should all take a special moment to remember them and the Speight and Loftus families. Elland Road has been eerily quiet with a solitary lawnmower the only activity.

Management meetings are taking place from home via video conference, with the key learning being that our senior team appear to have been ‘stealing’ the majority of their casual clothes from the club shop.

The training ground has seen more action with recuperating players arriving individually, in accordance with social distancing guidelines, to receive treatment and then pound the 1km track that Marcelo installed around the perimeter of Thorp Arch – which has been one of the secrets to our unrivalled fitness.

Marcelo has admitted that he struggles without the focus of an enemy to face at the end of each week, but his mind has been no less active in plotting our return to action.

The football world continues to scenario plan for the end of the crisis and, encouragingly, the overriding sentiment is that the completion of this season before we start next is the over-riding priority.

The FA’s decision to void all leagues below the National South and North, including the season of our table-topping Leeds United Ladies team, was met with a mixture of anger, disappointment and inevitable legal challenge which barely hints at the bedlam that will unfold if this approach was adopted higher up the pyramid.

However, the UEFA president, Alexander Cerefin, has reiterated the importance of finishing leagues across Europe and laid out options of games in June and July or a delayed start to next season with the season completing in August.

Whilst the shared priority of the Leeds United family now should be keeping each other safe, staying at home, protecting the NHS and saving lives, we should also look forward to the resumption of football and finding out both the destination of this season’s journey and whether Luke Ayling runs out of goal celebrations before he runs out of goals.

MOT

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