Leeds United took yet another hammering on Sunday, this time from Donal MacIntyre on Radio 5 Live.

Ironically this comes days after Sir Alan Sugar used the same radio station as a platform to vent his spleen against Leeds.

A BBC report broadcast on MacIntyres show last night (Sunday) claimed that the tax-man has written off £28m worth of debt owed to them by Football Clubs.

And Leeds are only second to Leicester City in the amount written off. The Foxes owed £7m when they went into adminstration, whilst Leeds owed £6.8m. Both clubs paid or will pay back around 10p in the pound, so Leeds will pay just £680,000 back.

The crux of the issue is the ongoing battle between the Football Authorities and HMRC. When a club goes into adminstration, football creditors (such as players, other clubs etc) gain preferential treatment when it comes to paying up debts. The taxman and everyone else has to wait for their slice and frequently they are left disappointed and feeling short-changed. A bit like the balloon supplier who claimed he was out of pocket from money owed for the Christmas and New Years do.

The HMRC want the Football authorities to abandon the "Football creditors priority rule" and are backed by Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis, who was pretty scathing over Leeds passage into adminstration.

The Football League however argue the rule is necessary to prevent clubs gaining an unfair advantage and cite the example of not paying for transfers as one reason why they must keep the creditors rule.

My own views that Leeds were heavily punished for the actions of individuals who have since moved on to pastures new. These views are well-publicised. I am also of the opinion that the government probably would have only squandered the £28m on the usual suspects eg NHS bureaucracy and silly wars abroad!

However it does not seem right that the likes of you and I are hammered for tax and have no choice when your income-tax and NI are deducted weekly at source and football clubs can run up huge deficits and some get out of paying them.

The cossetted status of "football creditors" does annoy me. It was galling that we had to pay off former players and managers. Did Robbie Fowler really need the cash to buy yet more terraced houses in Croxteth? Terry Venables hardly looked like he was a starving, freezing 60-something the last time I saw him!

As for the ridiculous argument over transfer-fees, why not simply do what normal businesses do and pay on delivery (or 30 days thereafter) and abandon these installment deals? If you aint got the cash then you can't have him. Back on planet real world, we have to undergo things such as credit-checks don't we?

I'm hoping to move to a new-house next weekend and I quite fancy a new flat-screen telly as the big. bulky ten-year-old thing we've got now has been taken over by the kids and their bloody Wii! If I buy one out of my catalogue and don't make the repayments on it, as miuch as Id like to deprive a Mancunian-based company of money eventually some gorilla in a suit will be round to snatch it back. If footballers must be bought on the "never never", then why can't the same principle apply? eg you fail to pay the installments so the player has to move back.

As for the players getting their wages owed paid up, then I do have some sympathy for the lower-league lads who aren't earning dosh like the Danny Mills' and Robbie Keane's of this world. But in these difficult times, redundancy is reality and no doubt many ordinary working-class Leeds fans will be facing difficult, uncertain times of unemployment or having to retrain for a new-career.

Isn't it about time the football industry came into planet real world?

Photo: Action Images

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