Leeds owner Massimo Cellino to sell Serie A club Cagliari

The Italian completed his takeover at Elland Road despite resistance

Massimo Cellino (GETTY IMAGES)

Leeds owner Massimo Cellino has revealed he has agreed to sell Serie A club Cagliari to an unnamed American investment group.

Cellino met with the potential buyers, led by Italian businessman Luca Silvestrone, in Miami on Tuesday afternoon to finalise the agreement.

The deal, worth a reported 85million euros, is expected to be completed by the end of the week.

"I am delighted," Cellino said to Gazzetta dello Sport. "We have reached an agreement and we have signed a letter of intent that foresees their takeover of the club.

"Now they will have to fight with the (Italian) bureaucracy.

"I hope they will be allowed to do what I wasn't given permission to do (to build a new Cagliari stadium)."

Cellino purchased Cagliari in 1992 and had been looking to sell the Sardinia-based outfit since acquiring a 75 percent stake in Leeds earlier this year.

Should the sale go through, Cagliari would become the third Serie A club to be foreign-owned - Roma have been controlled by an American consortium since May 2011 while Indonesian tycoon Erick Thohir acquired Inter Milan last year.

Cagliari finished 15th in the Serie A standings, seven points clear of the drop zone.