In the summer of 2007, a group of Leeds United fans that are independent of all other influences other than a mutual love of the club joined together to form Love Leeds Hate Bates – a fan group disappointed and dismayed with the club being put into administration only months after we had been told Leeds United was now a stable concern. There was only one person responsible for this dramatic turnaround in the club’s fortunes – Ken Bates.

Despite thousands of people pledging support in the early days of the movement and the success of the plane protest, the Football League’s imposition of the 15 point ‘price’ for coming out of admin without a CVA took the wind out of the movement’s sails – how could we jeopordise the club’s already precarious position further?

In the two years that have followed, we have kept a keen eye on developments and watched and waited for an upturn in fortunes – all we have received in return is another summer of court cases, the petty banning of certain media outlets from Elland Road and the disastrous handling of the Thorpe Arch debacle  - another case of the fans being misled by the club’s senior management.

Our aims now are the same as they were two years ago: Ken Bates, it’s time to go. Sell up and leave us to reunite behind our historic club.

As always, our aim is to support the team first and foremost. The manager, staff and players have our full support for the promotion push. We will never protest against Ken Bates when the whistle has blown.

But when there is no match on, the gloves are back off…