Gerald Krasner

Gerald Krasner FCA, FABCA (born 1949) was a partner in Bartfields, a corporate recovery firm based in the United Kingdom. He is a former chairman of the West Yorkshire football club Leeds United F.C.. Krasner, on behalf of Bartfields, was part of a team which worked with the DTI in its investigations.

In 2004, Krasner led the consortium of local businessmen which successfully took over the club. Krasner's reign witnessed the relegation of Leeds United from the English Premier League when a 3-3 draw against Charlton Athletic wasn't enough to beat the drop to Division One (6) (since re-branded the Coca Cola Championship ). Popular choice and Leeds legend Eddie Gray failed to rejuvenate the club after he was called in to a caretaker manager role, replacing the sacked Peter Reid midway through a torrid 2003/2004 season. Gray was largely blameless for the performance of the team, with the entire foundation being sold out from underneath him. The players faced the prospect that their wages might not be paid from one month to the next, as Leeds United seemed on the verge of terminal liquidation.

In the event under Krasner's stewardship Leeds United managed to tread softly until they could be thrashed out for their now clearly unrepayable debts, large amounts of which had to be effectively written off by the club's debts as they had been taken out in the name of the now insolvent LUFC plc. Krasner and his consortium eventually sold the club to former Chelsea supremo Ken Bates, a flamboyant character who had himself recently sold Chelsea FC to billionaire Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Chelsea had reportedly been carrying similar levels of debt to Leeds before Abramovich transformed the west London team into a strong force in English football. Bates had been in the market to invest after being ousted from his position at Chelsea by Abramovich.

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