All you want to know about our chairman courtesy of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In January 2005, after failing in a bid to invest in Sheffield Wednesday, Bates became the principal owner and chairman of then struggling Championship team, Leeds United purchasing 50% of the club.

He was quoted as saying that he wanted "one last challenge". Bates had a dispute with former club, Chelsea, having accused them of "tapping-up" three Leeds youth players, accusations denied by Chelsea.

Chelsea in turn reported Bates to the FA for his comment that the current Chelsea directors are "a bunch of shysters from Siberia", an alleged anti-semitic remark about Abramovich, something denied by Bates.

Upon hearing that Chelsea had reported him, Bates said "I haven't laughed so much since Ma caught her tits in the mangle."

The FA also agreed with Bates stating that he had no case to answer.His own club Leeds have themselves come under scrutiny after non-league team Farsley Celtic accused Leeds of improperly signing youngsters from them.

The case brought against Chelsea was eventually dropped after the two clubs agreed to a settlement privately.

Bates plans to eventually re-purchase Leeds' home stadium, Elland Road, and the Thorpe Arch training-ground.

In May 2007, with Leeds United entering administration, it was announced that KPMG acting as the administrator had agreed to sell the club to a newly-formed company called Leeds United Football Club Limited of which Bates is one of three directors.

During the summer he became unpopular with groups of fans. Protests were held at games ordering the Chairman to resign.

Since Bates' time as chairman at Leeds United he has worked with 4 managers (not including numerous caretaker managers in between managers leaving).

Kevin Blackwell was the manager when Bates joined Leeds and was sacked after playoff final failure and a disappointing league position during the following season. Dennis Wise was then hired to replace Kevin Blackwell, but after being the man in charge of Leeds being relegated to League 1 (for the first time in their entire history), Wise decided to join Newcastle United in a non managerial role despite Leeds' good start to the season (despite a -15 point deduction).

Gary McAllister was the man appointed to replace Wise, McAllister was able to guide Leeds to the League 1 play-off final (despite the -15 point deduction) but a 1-0 loss to Doncaster saw Leeds banished to League 1 for yet another year.
 
In the 2008-09 season Leeds were one of the pre season favourites to promotion and after a good start their form faultered dramatically, and after a run of five straight defeats (including a one nil loss to Histon in the FA Cup), Bates decided to sack McAllister.

On the 23rd December Leeds United hired Simon Grayson as their new manager.