LONDON: English league football was offered the opportunity to prove that its ‘fit and proper persons’ tests are not mere PR exercuses after Leeds United suitor Massimo Cellino was fined £500,000 in Italy for tax evasion.

Cellino, already president of Sardinian club Cagliari, was fined for failing to pay duty on a yacht he imported from the United States. His lawyers have said he intends to appeal.

Cellino had agreed a deal to buy a 75pc stake in Leeds from Gulf Finance House Capital at the start of last month. But his bid has already been referred to a Football League board meeting next month.

The Football League incorporates a ‘owners and directors’ test, which prevents anyone with an unspent conviction for dishonesty offences from being a director, a 30 per cent owner, or from exercising control over one of its clubs.

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