Ercole Cellino: Leeds United director and owner's son leaves the club's board
Ercole was recently embroiled in controversy over using Nazi references on social media
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Your support makes all the difference.Ercole Cellino, son of Leeds United owner Massimo, has left his position on the club’s board.
The 26-year-old’s role was terminated on 28 March, as revealed by a Companies House release which was published on Tuesday.
Ercole outraged supporters last month after publishing a picture of his new haircut on Instragram with the Nazi-related captions, ignorant to the club’s Jewish heritage.
The words ‘gestapo’, ‘nazi’ and ‘ss’ were tagged to the image. Ercole later published an apology for his actions on the social network, saying: “I did not mean to offend anyone. Look, I can be anything but anti-Semitic and racist.”
Time to Go Massimo, a group of Leeds supporters who wish to protest against Cellino’s ownership, subsequently called for Ercole to be removed from the club’s board.
According to the release by Companies House, however, Ercole’s departure was finalised before the incident.
Ercole’s brother Edoardo, who was also appointed to the club’s board upon Massimo’s takeover in 2014, recently served a three-match ban from all football activity after calling a fan a ‘moron’ and using another offensive term on Facebook.
Edoardo was charged with an ‘aggravated breach’ of conduct regulations as his comments to the supporter included a reference to disability.
Massimo, meanwhile, successfully appealed a charge of tax evasion in his native Italy on Monday, overturning a ruling reached last June.
The guilty verdict disqualified him from involvement with Leeds under the Football League’s owners’ and directors’ test.
The matter of Massimo’s ownership will now be discussed at the league’s meeting on Thursday.
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