Andrea Radrizzani on Tuesday "completed a full takeover" of League Championship side Leeds United, ending Massimo Cellino's "turbulent reign at the club," according to Richard Sutcliffe of the YORKSHIRE POST. The Italian businessman, a sports TV rights entrepreneur, bought a 50% stake in January "with a view to taking full charge in the summer." He "has now exercised that right, after three weeks of talks had gone into striking a deal with Cellino." Radrizzani: "I am delighted to have the opportunity to become a custodian of this great football club. ... This is a long-term commitment, there is a lot of hard work ahead of us and I am aware of my responsibilities as owner of Leeds United" (YORKSHIRE POST, 5/24). REUTERS' Neil Robinson reported Cellino "has left the club after a controversial three-year stay" that saw him banned three times by England's football authorities and fire six managers. The 60-year-old "delivered a parting message to supporters," saying, "I wish Andrea luck, I am sure he will continue what I have started and show that people from our country are honest and hard-working. ... Owners come and go but Leeds United will be there forever. Goodbye and farewell" (REUTERS, 5/23). BDAILY's Nick Hill reported Radrizzani is the co-founder of media rights group MP & Silva, which has offices in Singapore and London. Cellino said in his message to fans, "If you can survive working with me, you can survive anything! I have always taught people to work for the club and not for me and in the end the staff have done so in a beautiful way" (BDAILY, 5/23).
ONE OF A KIND: In London, James Riach wrote the "one thing you cannot take away" from Cellino is that he leaves Leeds United in "far healthier and calmer circumstances than those he arrived in." Cellino's time in Yorkshire will "never be forgotten." Divisive, "emotional, entertaining and infuriating, the continual conundrum was how such an intelligent and shrewd man could so often make inexplicable decisions." It was as if he "revelled in the play, a thespian whose own stage was regularly more compelling" than the football he seemed to "love and hate." In Italy, there are other owners and chairs "cut from similar cloth, but English football had never seen anything like Cellino" (INDEPENDENT, 5/24).
