Peter Ridsdale

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Peter Ridsdale (born 11 March 1952 in Leeds) is an English businessman well known as acting as chairman of several football clubs, most notably Leeds United. He is currently fufilling the role at Cardiff City.

Contents 1 History 2 United We Fall 3 Notes 4 External links

[edit] History

Ridsdale became chairman of hometown club Leeds United in 1997 and enjoyed success in the first four years of tenure as Leeds reached the UEFA Cup semi-final in 1999–2000 and the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2000–01. During this time he enjoyed a good relationship with the Leeds fans.^[1] However, once the full extent of what Ridsdale and his board had done at Elland Road was discovered by the fans this relationship vanished and he is now best remembered by Leeds supporters for the financial nightmare that the club found themselves in.

Under Ridsdale's stewardship the club borrowed £60m against future gate receipts, effectively gambling on Leeds qualifying for the Champions League in successive seasons, which they failed to do. Ridsdale has repeatedly denied any blame with regard to the later situation of the club^[2] but has also conflictingly admitted it was a mistake to allow David O'Leary to spend so lavishly on players.^[3] Ridsdale also claimed that he would have saved Leeds from subsequent relegations to the third tier of English football and the debt his board had incurred in the name of the club.^[4] The fact remained however that by the time Ridsdale stepped down in March 2003, Leeds were £103 million in debt and failing on the field.^[5]

He was also the owner of Barnsley for a while, rescuing them from folding after dropping from the Premier League to Division Two and loss of revenue from the ITV Digital collapse. Some saw him as a major mistake at Barnsley as he nearly made the club go into liquidation before Gordon Shepherd and Patrick Cryne took over at Oakwell. He became deputy Chairman of Cardiff City, who recruited him to help with their new stadium project and became chairman in October 2006 after Sam Hammam stepped down.^[6] In mid-2007 Ridsdale campaigned to become a member of the Football Association of Wales council and hoped to be elected as one of six south Wales representatives on Welsh football's ruling body. However when the vote took place in July he finished bottom of the candidates with just fourteen votes.^[7]

After Leeds' relegation to the third tier of the English league system for the first time in their history Ridsdale said he was "deeply saddened" by Leeds's relegation but stated that he did not believe that events during his tenure as Leeds chairman was in any way responsible for the club's current plight.^[8]

[edit] United We Fall

In November 2007 Ridsdale released the book United We Fall: Boardroom Truths About the Beautiful Game making claims about incidents which had contributed to the downfall of Leeds United in the mid-2000s. Extracts were printed in The Sun and on their on-line page. Ridsdale made the following claims:

1. Former Leeds manager David O'Leary had a large role in "a secret deal with bung agent Rune Hauge that ultimately landed the disgraced Norwegian £1.75million". The claims were in regard to the deal that brought Rio Ferdinand to Leeds. ^[9]
2. Before O'Leary had left the club he had "lost the dressing room" and this was the real reason for his sacking in the summer of 2002. Several players had stated that "they’d be looking to move elsewhere if O’Leary remained as manager for the 2002–03 season" including Paul Robinson whom had stated after being dropped for a match "I’ll never play for that b*****d again".^[10]
3. Football agent Pino Pagliari had "offered the illicit payment when Robbie Keane moved to Tottenham in 2002" to submit an "invoice for ‘agent services’" for £600,000. In return for Ridsdale allowing this the fee would be split 50:50 between the two of them, however Ridsdale refused and reported the offer to his board, for future reference so to never deal with the agent.^[11]
4. Martin O'Neill had signed a contract in January 2003 to become manager of Leeds as soon as Celtic would release him from his contract. He would have taken over from then manager Terry Venables however Venables' team at the time went on a seven game winning run. The contract had a clause that Ridsdale was Chairman when O'Neill took over yet Ridsdale left due to pressure from fans before Venables was sacked and O'Neill could take charge.^[12]

When responding to these claims David O'Leary called Peter "deranged" and suggested that Peter was 'two faced' with his comments compared to how the two's relationship had continued since both had left Leeds.^[13]

O'Neill later responded to the claims regarding him stating that he had taken part in discussions with Peter and had signed a conditional statement but "he insists that nothing legally-binding was put in place".^[14]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• BBC - Leeds Sport - Peter Ridsdale Factfile

Business positions
Preceded by Bill Fotherby	Leeds United A.F.C. chairman 1997–2003	Succeeded by Professor John McKenzie
Preceded by John Dennis	Barnsley F.C. chairman 2003–2004	Succeeded by Gordon Shepherd
Preceded by Sam Hammam	Cardiff City F.C. chairman 2006–	Succeeded by Incumbent