Kevin Scriven
On the pitch: Goalkeeper
Real life: Builder

Justin Gregory
On the pitch: Right-back
Real life: College student
Gregory, sadly, won’t get to play at Anfield: he picked up 5 yellow-cards and is due to serve a one-match suspension during the Liverpool game. The FA, being made up of aging, insensitive incompetents, refused to allow him to serve the suspension at a different time and refused to allow him to sit out on another, rescheduled game instead.

Jay Smith
On the pitch: Centre-back
Real life: “Works in planning”

Phil Warner
On the pitch: Centre-back
Real life: Drives a van

Tony Taggart
On the pitch: Right-back
Real life: Bin man (Garbage man for Americans)

Mo Harkin
On the pitch: Right-winger
Real life: Used to play for Wycombe

Jamie Collins
On the pitch: Central Midfielder & Captain
Real life: Primary School Teacher (Elementary School for Americans)

Charlie Oatway
On the pitch: Central Midfielder
Real life: “I work for Brighton and Hove Albion on a scheme called, ‘Albion in the Community’.”

Alfie Potter
On the pitch: Left-winger
Real life: Youth player at Peterborough United – currently on loan at Havant and Waterlooville

Rocky Baptiste
On the pitch: Striker
Real life: Training to be a taxi driver in London

Richard Pacquette
On the pitch: Striker
Real life: School Caretaker (Janitor for Americans)

The hell with Leeds – and with the dull, Premier League-only FA Cup matches the BBC will be showing this weekend – I’m slapping the radio on and listening to Havant and Waterlooville have the night of their lives.

The details themselves aren’t that interesting to non-Leeds fans: Leeds allege that they were compelled to enter a CVA that knew would invoke a legal challenge from HM Customs and Revenue, in order to retain their “Golden Share” in the Football League. Doing so, however, created a situation in which the League was able to deduct 15 points from the team, despite Leeds having no alternative path available.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens here – it could lead to the 15 point penalty being rescinded, in which case Leeds would be top of the league.

At the end of last season, Leeds were facing relegation from the Championship and were forced to declare bankruptcy. In the process of doing so, they allegedly violated Football League regulations on insolvency, and were docked 10 points in the Championship. The other teams in their new league, League One, then voted to dock Leeds an additional 15 points on August 3rd of last year.

Ken Bates and the rest of the United board have been trying to have the point penalty overturned for the last eight months. They first began an appeal through the Football League, which was an abysmal failure. This probably had something to do with the fact that appeal was decided upon by board members of rival teams in the League, all of whom have a vested interest in preventing Leeds from gaining promotion to the Championship at their expense. Considering the team’s current form, a points penalty might be the only way to do that.

Leeds then requested independent arbitration from the national FA, but it looks like Ken Bates has decided to abandon that route and to take the League to court instead.

Bizarrely, Leeds have a written agreement with the Football League prohibiting them from taking legal action against each other. Leeds (and their army of lawyers) apparently reckon that, “European Union laws permit them to ignore the agreement and fight the 15-point deduction, which the club believe was a “wrongful decision”.

This is Ken Bates in the Yorkshire Evening Post:

“We’re suing the Football League for our 15 points because we believe, as we always have, that there was no justification for the penalty. The agreement we had saying we wouldn’t take legal action was signed under duress. We were a couple of days from the start of the season and we wouldn’t have been able to fulfil our fixtures without regaining our share in the Football League. In that situation, we either signed the document or we let ourselves be booted out of the League. But EU law says Person A cannot prevent Person B from going to court if it’s to right a wrongful decision. We did ask the FA for independent arbitration but we’ve been waiting five months for them to do anything, and the whole thing is a shambles. We want an open and independent review of this decision, and the only way of ensuring that is by going to the High Court.”

I have to hand it to Ken Bates: the man might be a lunatic, but he’s managed to take a possibly corrupt and probably poorly-considered Football League decision and turn it into a national legal circus of epic proportions. There aren’t many people who would even consider that as a viable route, let alone actually do it. Has an English football team ever sued its own league before? I’m pretty sure the answer is no – Leeds United, once again making history!