Dave Woods

Mon 11 November 2019 11:27, UK

As Leeds United battle for promotion on the pitch, there’s another one taking place off it – currently a much friendlier one. 

Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani has admitted that he is looking for outside investment in the club, with a shortlist of three interested parties, including the Qatar Sports Investment group (QSI). [Times] 

QSI went one step further and said that talks had been ongoing with Leeds for months now [L’Equipe]. In that story from last week, a QSI source said it valued Leeds at between £51m and £69m (€60-80m).

According to a story by Phil Hay in the Athletic on Monday, Radrizzani values the club at £100m+ and the response from his QSI source over the weekend was, “He overvalues it a little bit. Right now, there wouldn’t be anything happening quickly.”

That ties in with the message that’s been coming from Radrizzani and puts the brakes on a story that was gathering momentum last week, with the Times claiming that Radrizzani was in Paris last week for more talks with QSI.

Radrizzani himself denied that on Twitter and Hay said that his source confirmed that while the Leeds owner was there as a guest of Nasser Al-Khelaifi (PSG president and chairman of QSI), no set investment talks were planned.

Hay’s source also stated what we revealed last week, that QSI wants to buy a majority share – “because that’s how we do business” – while Radrizzani isn’t looking to step away from the club yet.

So, the upshot is that while there’s a lot of maneuvering going on behind the scenes, it seems that nothing is going to happen imminently. And the disputed valuation of the club could well be settled by promotion to the Premier League before Elland Road sees any QSI money.

In other Leeds news, new Klich deal great news for Leeds but one thing doesn’t add up