Ken Bates

Ken Bates (born 4 December 1931 in Ealing, London) is a British football executive. The current chairman and chief executive of Leeds United F.C., Bates was previously chairman of Chelsea F.C. from the early 1980s until 2003. An outspoken character who relishes conflict, Bates is one of the most controversial figures in British football.

Bates made his personal fortune from ready-mix concrete and dairy farming, and had five years as chairman of Oldham Athletic during the 1960's and a spell at Wigan Athletic.

He purchased Chelsea in 1982 for £1 and saw the club through serious problems, but also alienated many of its fans, especially with his suggestion that electric fences be used as crowd controls. By the end of his chairmanship the club had a rebuilt home at Stamford Bridge and was consistently finishing in the top six of the Premiership and challenging for honours, but its future was threatened by an estimated debt burden of £80 million. In 2002 he was successfully sued for libel by Chelsea supporter David Johnstone after writing a defamatory statement about fan group the Chelsea Independent Supporters Association in his match-day programme notes. In 2003 he sold the club to Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich, making a £17million profit. He stayed on as club chairman until March 2004, when he announced his resignation.

After failing in a bid to invest in Sheffield Wednesday, Bates became the principal owner and chairman of then struggling Championship team, Leeds United, saying that he wants "one last challenge". In just over a year, he has achieved both decent on-pitch results, but also alienated a lot of Leeds fans with inflated ticket prices.

Bates was involved in the early stages of the project to rebuild Wembley Stadium. He currently resides in Monaco as a tax exile.