McKenzie seeks to bring in Chinese consortium

Leeds United's chief executive Trevor Birch said yesterday that claims that the club's chairman Professor John McKenzie is to resign in the next 48 hours are "a little bit premature".

However, McKenzie is almost certain to step down in the near future to pursue the prospect of mounting a takeover bid in conjunction with a Chinese consortium. McKenzie, who has strong business connections in the Far East, only took over at the end of March following Peter Ridsdale's resignation. Should the 65-year-old decide to mount a rescue bid, he would have to resign to avoid a conflict of interests as he is Leeds' largest individual shareholder. Birch, when asked about McKenzie resigning, said: "John has a lot of business interests in the Far East and I think there is a possibility he might be looking to put a consortium together with those people.

"But it's early stages and we shouldn't really speculate too far on that."

Birch was asked whether to presume McKenzie would be resigning, sooner rather than later, to chase prospective investors, replying: "It (stepping down) does two things. It allows John to be able to work and put together a consortium and also gives somebody looking at the club a clean board in which to invest."

McKenzie would appear to face strong opposition. Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak al-Khalifa from Bahrain has made his interest known, while 10 days ago deputy plc chairman Allan Leighton also quit, seemingly with the intention of putting together his own consortium.