Ken Bates buys Leeds United

Former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates bought debt-ridden second division Leeds United for 10 million pounds ($18.7 million), the club said on Friday.

Bates, one of the most outspoken and abrasive men in English soccer, ended a 22-year spell at Chelsea when he resigned as chairman in March, having sold his controlling interest in the club to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003.

"I recognise that Leeds United is a great club that has fallen on hard times," Bates said in a statement. "We have a lot of hard work ahead of us to get the club back to where it belongs in the Premiership."

The 73-year-old said he aimed to buy back the club's Elland Road stadium and Thorp Arch training ground. Leeds were forced to sell Elland Road -- their home since 1919 -- in November after takeover talks with a British-American consortium collapsed.

The dominant club in the English game in the last 1960s and early 1970s, Leeds reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2001. The backwash of a spending spree under former chairman Peter Ridsdale and manager David O'Leary then hit the club.

They were forced to sell all their big-name players to ease debts which rose to well over 100 millions pounds, and came close to financial collapse before being sold to a consortium led by Gerald Krasner in March 2003.

Relegated from the English Premier League last season after finishing second from bottom, they say their debts are now below 24 million pounds.

Bates has taken a 50 percent stake and the majority of the current board will step down.

"This deal ensures the medium to long term survival of the club and I believe Mr Bates' proposals are totally for the benefit of the club," outgoing chairman Krasner told the Leeds website.

"We are content that under Mr Bates, Leeds United will continue to consolidate and move forward."

Bates, who was linked last year with a takeover of Leeds's Yorkshire neighbours Sheffield Wednesday, bought his stake in Chelsea for one pound.

He rebuilt the club's decrepit ground, adding a hotel and conference centre, before selling to Abramovich who wrote off the club's considerable debts and took it private.

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