Cellino’s suspension was due to start on February 1st, but yet again he has managed to cause a delay by making an appeal.

On December the 8th the FA found Massimo guilty of breaking the rules by making a payment to an unlicensed agent to facilitate Ross McCormack’s transfer to Fulham back in 2014. As well as handing out the suspension they fined he club and Il Presidente £250,000 each.

Today Leeds issued the following statement: "Mr Cellino has lodged an appeal to overturn the guilty verdict and any sanctions imposed upon Mr Cellino by the FA will be held/suspended until the appeal has been heard and a verdict has been found.We can also confirm that the club has lodged an appeal in relation to the sanctions that were imposed directly on us. We are confident that the appeals will be successful.”

Is there any real chance of this appeal succeeding, or is Cellino merely playing for time and wasting even more money on legal fees in the process? Certainly the club’s statement is a bit short on details as to exactly why they are so confident they can establish that Cellino didn’t break the rules.

Is this going to harm the prospects of Andrea Radrizzani being able to exercise his option to buy Cellino’s remaining 50% stake in the club? We’ll just have to hope that it doesn’t.

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