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Mail smear LUST chairman whilst toadying to Bates
Mail smear LUST chairman whilst toadying to Bates
Wednesday, 19th Dec 2012 07:02

Neil Ashton of the Daily Mail take a bow! Granted a rare, exclusive interview with Leeds Chairman Ken Bates on the eve of the titanic Leeds v Chelsea League Cup quarter-final he keeps his ink fluid to conduct an astonishing and personal attack on LUST chairman Gary Cooper hours later.

It is a well-known fact that Bates and LUST are anything but friends. I also thought that despite being very much aligned with their right-wing politics, Ken didn't have much time for the Daily Mail.

However in an "exclusive" Ken throws open the doors to his Leeds City Centre penthouse flat, which is opposite the Malmaison should you ever be passing on your way to the stadium (I'm sure Ken would more than welcome you in for a cuppa should his tax domicile status permit him to be in), to the Daily Mail's Neil Ashton and gets out his Chelsea scrapbook and even says Roman Abramovich, who he once dubbed "a shyster from Siberia" would be welcome in the ER boardroom as long as he wore a tie.

The usual claptrap of how he saved Leeds United and ploughed £20 into the stadium follows and ends with Bates may be tempted to crack open the bubbly if Leeds beat his former club tonight.

However Mr Ashton then pens another article about another Chairman, the LUST Chairman Gary Cooper. Entitled "Business failures of potential Leeds buyer who 'loves the club but hates Chelsea' stand out"

The article alleges that Mr Cooper has three county court judgements against him and there is a freezing order on his home in Hull. His last company was wound up in 2011 and his business partner, his brother Simon is currently serving seven years for growing cannabis.

A story of public interest? Maybe if Gary Cooper was actually buying the club. As far as I am aware he has merely spoken to interested parties and never actually prepared a takeover bid? I'm not a LUST member and have often been suspicious of their "sources close to the deal" hyperbole however I do feel this is nothing more than an attack on the credentials of Gary Cooper who represents 8500 members no matter what Ken Bates thinks of him.

A coincidence maybe, that the story smearing Gary Cooper by the same journalist appears just hours after his visit to the Bates's holiday home in Leeds?

Photo: Action Images



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TimWhelan added 13:25 - Dec 19
Gary Cooper's response has appeared on the LUST website:-

"The story the paper intends to print concerns the fact that my brother
is currently serving a prison sentence for cannabis cultivation.
Following his arrest in 2009, my family and I set up a business for my
brother in order to take him away from the place and people who had led
him into trouble. My brother was convicted in December 2010 and, as the
business was unable to operate without him, it was placed into
liquidation in March 2011. This resulted in a default on a business
loan, from which a charge was placed on my own home. As a result, in
October this year, my house was repossessed.
"These matters concern only me and my family and are very private, and I
do not feel they are of public interest or understand what anyone has to
gain from them being printed in a national newspaper.
"As far as I am concerned these events are separate from my role as
Chairman of Leeds United Supporters' Trust."
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