The deputy chairman of Leeds United plc, Mr Alan Leighton, yesterday blamed the high wages paid to footballers for the financial problems that have brought the company to the brink of dissolution.
The company needs £5 million sterling (€7.25 million) by Monday to keep its creditors at bay and survive the rest of the season.
However, investors have been reluctant to bail it out, as it is at the bottom of the Premiership. Even if it survives this crisis, it risks relegation next season, which will seriously damage its earning power.
Responding to a question from the audience at an Institute of Directors' lunch in Dublin yesterday, Mr Leighton said the football club's problems were an example of the difficulties faced by many teams in the Premiership.
He pointed out that three to four years ago, clubs entered into huge deals with players in the belief that they could recoup the money.
However, changes in the market meant that their revenues did not keep pace with spending, while transfer values also fell from the highs of that period.
"The fundamental issue is that the wages in football are now too high," he said.
But Mr Leighton added that the company's board still ran the business and was accountable on that basis. He said that the key issue for the board was to try to turn the situation around.
"Football is not like any other business," he explained. "Everything depends on performance on the pitch. You can get on a roll and get confidence and get good results." However, he added that a spiral of poor playing and financial performances was very difficult to stop.
"When I got into this a few years ago, people said 'you must be mad, don't go anywhere near sport' and they were right," he said. "It's all been a salutary lesson."
Mr Leighton is chairman of the Royal Mail and a non-executive director of BSkyB.
Earlier he told the audience that the Royal Mail turned around its fortunes by focusing on its central business, delivering the post, and not strategy.
He argued that execution - performing well at the core activity - is the key to succeeding as a business.
