Sky Bet Championship: Leeds United fan group aims to secure board position

A Leeds fans' group is hoping to raise £10million in its bid to secure a place on the club's board of directors.

Leeds Fans LLP has targeted the shares of minority stakeholders Gulf Finance House Capital, which owns 25 per cent of the club's shares.

Huddersfield entrepreneur Dylan Thwaites, 49, who fronts the new limited liability partnership, said the group has support from inside the club and GFH Capital itself.

Leeds Fans LLP will offer supporters the chance to become partners in the group by buying a £100 stake. Each stake carries one vote and a total of 100,000 are being created, with individual fans allowed to purchase a maximum of 1,000.

"There's a lost generation of Leeds fans due to the way the club has been run for the last 12 years or so and we think it's time Leeds fans had more of a say in this," said Thwaites, who sold his marketing company Latitude for £55million in 2007.

"Our target is to raise £10million from normal Leeds fans in order to have a seat at the table and have some influence as events unfold over the next year or so," he told BBC Radio Leeds.

"We've picked up an astonishing level of support over the last two or three weeks and that includes ex-players and coaches.

"We've had offers of expertise in finance and legals, we've got people inside Leeds United and inside GFH who are supportive of what we're trying to do."

The terms of the deal reached between GFH Capital and Massimo Cellino in April last year, when the Italian bought 75 per cent of the club's shares, provide Leeds Fans LLP with a major hurdle.

Cellino, currently serving his ownership ban after failing the Football League's 'owners' and directors' test, has first refusal on any shares which another stakeholder tries to sell, but Thwaites is hoping Leeds Fans LLP will be in position to start selling stakes next month.