Our beloved club President is facing his most serious charges yet, and the delay could complicate a possible buy-out of Leeds United.

Massimo Cellino is certainly no stranger to the Italian legal system, and it can be hard to keep track of the various misdemeanours that have led to him to be dragged before the courts in the last few years.

This one is known as the ‘IS Arenas case’, and relates to the construction a stadium back in 2012, for Cellino’s former club Cagliari. This allegedly involved embezzlement, forgery and breaches of planning rules. His fellow defendants are Elena Mauro Contini, the former mayor of Quarto Sant’ and the commissioner of public works, Stefano Lilliu.

The original arrest warrant for Cellino, issued as far back as February 2013, described his as a man with “marked criminal tendencies … capable of using every kind of deception to achieve his ends.” The Italian Prosecutors might think that, but we couldn’t possibly comment.

Massimo denies the charges against him (as usual), but the prosecutors have already accepted plea bargains from a number of other defendants. The trial was originally due to start in September, but has already been delayed once, and has now been put back again to February 2017. This is reportedly because another judge is going to take over on the case.

This all comes at a time when Cellino is believed to be in discussions with his compatriot Andrea Radrizzani about the possibility of significant new funds being invested in the club. A couple of weeks ago Cellino seemed to have changed his mind, but Andrea Radrizzani was spotted at the game at Elland Road on Sunday.

Radrizzani was accompanied by Andre Tegner, the head of investments and strategy at Aser Media, suggesting that he is negotiating for his companies to buy a stake in the club, rather than buying the shares in his own right. And this would lead to Leeds being at least partly Chinese owned, with Chinese companies Everbright Securities and Beijing Baofeng Technology having bought a majority stake in Radrizzani’s group.

But this could all be thrown into doubt if Cellino was found guilty in his latest case, as that would lead him to fail the Football League’s ‘Owners and Directors Test’ for the second time. Hopefully this wouldn’t matter if Radrizzani bought the club outright, but the latest suggestion is that Cellino wants to keep at least a stake in the club while receiving further investment.

Any deal would need Football League approval, and they would probably veto any continued involvement by Cellino if he was found guilty. In that case, all would depend on whether Radrizzani’s group of companies (and co-owners) were willing and able to buy the club outright.

It would be brilliant if they did, so we could be rid of Cellino once and for all and have the club being run in a decent and honest manner, but if they’re not planning to buy 100% of the club this case could spoil our chances of getting some investors with serious funds behind them.

Photo: Action Images

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