When Uganda almost owned Leeds United: Michael Ezra’s boldest football power play

 When Uganda almost owned Leeds United: Michael Ezra’s boldest football power play

Back in 2004, Ugandan tycoon Michael Ezra stunned the sporting world when he entered high-level talks to buy English Premier League side Leeds United, then drowning in debt and fighting for survival.

After a meeting with club officials, Ezra boldly declared:

“Money is no longer the issue, that has been sorted. Leeds know that I have the £60m (about sh200b). My board would also spend an extra £30m to strengthen the team.”

The news sent shockwaves through football and even triggered movement on the stock market. Shares in the financially crippled club, which had crashed by 25% days earlier, bounced 14% after word of Ezra’s interest spread.

But money was not the sticking point. According to Ezra, the dispute lay in the composition of his proposed six-man board, which included no Britons. Leeds’ management reportedly questioned the lack of “technical expertise” to guide the club’s future.

When contacted by The New Vision at the time, Leeds’ financial director Neil Robson declined to confirm or deny the meeting, only saying:

“I can neither deny nor confirm that it took place … and that’s the answer I will give for every question you ask.”

Leeds in Crisis

Leeds United, then bottom of the Premiership, was more than £80m in debt following years of overspending on players. The club had just secured £5m in emergency funding to stay afloat until season’s end and was desperately weighing rescue offers.

Ezra’s bid, if successful, would have made him the first African to fully own a European football club. At the time, only Libya’s Al-Saadi Gaddafi (a shareholder in Italy’s Perugia) and Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak al-Khalifa of Bahrain were among the few high-profile non-Europeans linked with club ownership.

Other bidders included a Yorkshire consortium—whose £20m offer paled compared to Ezra’s—and rival investors whose credibility was also under scrutiny.

For Ezra, who had just been voted New Vision’s “Second Man of the Year” after President Yoweri Museveni, the Leeds deal was an opportunity to cement himself as a global sporting figure.

History, however, tells us the takeover never materialised. But for a moment in 2004, a Ugandan businessman had the football world watching closely.