Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has explained that he joked when suggesting that the “pie tax” policy was levied as a punishment for critical supporters.
The 59-year-old decided to add a £5 surcharge, which included a voucher for refreshments in exchange, to the price of adult tickets in Elland Road’s South Stand in December.
Cellino came in for heavy criticism, especially from the South Stand, during Leeds’ 2-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers in late October, with chants of “time to go, Massimo.”
And the former Cagliari owner in an interview with Sardinian newspaper L’Unione Sarda stated that he imposed the £5 surcharge as a way of getting back at the supporters who were criticising him.
“At some point someone told me ‘Cellino, Cellino’ – 20 supporters of my team – ‘time to go.’ And I said ‘but why don’t you go away?’ And the supporters [said] ‘we pay!’ he said.
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“So I said ‘No, you pay to see the game. To criticise me you need to pay extra’ and I put five pounds more for each ticket.
“I’ll explain what happened. Outside the stadium there is a guy who thinks he’s clever and put up an unauthorised stand. He sells beers. Consider that in England you can’t live only on television rights. Leeds live on tickets and beer that is sold at the stadium, and season tickets.
“We collect about €40m per year with season tickets and beers only. So if you put the stand in front of the stadium with a bar to sell the beers, what can I do?
“So I said ‘those that go to this bar, that are the friends of this guy, because they are the supporters that criticise us also, they need to pay 20 pounds plus plus five pounds with beer included.’ They are very angry and criticise me for this.”
However, Cellino now insists that the extra £5 was charged to bring added revenue to the club, and not rebuke the disgruntled supporters.
“It was just a joke. I never could do anything like that”, he told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“In the bar business we try to make [the fans] buy the beer from our bars and not from everybody who sells them in front of the stadium. It is to help the club.”
Cellino is not alien to controversies, with the Italian famously banning Sky Sports from entering Elland Raod to cover the club’s match with Derby County in late December as he feared live coverage was hampering ticket sales; although he later backtracked and allowed cameras inside the ground.
