An amusing spat has broken out between Leeds and Huddersfield Town, over our claim for hotel expenses.

Leeds have sent Huddersfield a bill for the cost of an overnight stay before last Saturday’s local derby, even though the journey from Elland Road to the Galpharm Stadium is only 15 miles. Leeds are claiming that an overnight stay was necessary because of the midday kick off, otherwise players would have been leaving home at an unreasonable hour.

Under Football League regulations, the home side pay for the visitors’ travel expenses out of their gate receipts. Huddersfield CEO Nigel Clibbens told his club's official site that the claim is 'sad and laughable', but said they could not just dismiss it as Leeds intend to deduct the cash from money owed to Huddersfield for match ticket sales for the away end.

Mr Clibbens said "We clearly didn't take account of travel time along the M62 or Leeds' need for extra time in bed on Saturday morning. The behaviour of Leeds is clearly against both the letter of the regulations and more importantly the spirit of the game and does nothing for Leeds' reputation at all." Huddersfield have asked the Football League for assistance in the dispute.

But Leeds were swift to come back with a statement on our own website. It says “it is for the travelling club to decide if that is how it wishes to prepare.  Huddersfield have appealed and the Football League will decide. In the event that the Football League agree with Huddersfield we will abide by their decision and will draw our own conclusions as to why.

The process will be dealt with by the Football League and we will pass no further comment on the matter so as not to prejudice the outcome until a decision is made. However, it is worth noting that we believe the public release of this dispute by Huddersfield (without any notification to ourselves in advance) is designed to gain favour among their supporters - but we now feel it is important that the public are made aware of the following...”

The statement goes on to make three other complaints about Huddersfield’s conduct on other matters, all of which have been kept private up until now. “Huddersfield Town paid Leeds United the sum of £1000 as compensation following the game at Elland Road in November 2008 for using LUTV's footage of the game without prior permission and, against Football League regulations, illegally copying it for sale to their fans.”

“We have received a number of complaints from our own fans about the conduct of the PA announcer at Huddersfield last weekend, and Huddersfield Town chose not to grant admission to LUTV (one camera) to film the match last weekend unless we paid £5000. Huddersfield are the only club in the Football League to have made this demand - this is hardly consistent with the spirit of the game - and we were informed of their demand less than 24 hours before the kick-off.

For the record, our claim for travelling expenses is £1100”.

The abrasive tone of the website statement bears the hallmark of something written by Ken Bates, who is usually back in the country on the day before a home game to do some work at the club. So it’s probably no coincidence that this dispute has broken out on a Friday.

It does seem a bit excessive to have an overnight stay, as I’m sure that the squad could have left at about 9am and beaten most of the traffic, still arriving at the Galpharm in time to have a team talk and warm up properly. But Huddersfield are obviously not blamless in other matters, and their handling of the situation is obviously inflammatory and unprofessional.

So it’s over to the Football League to resolve the dispute. I’m sure they’ll give Leeds United a sympathetic hearing, as they have on all occasions in the past.

Photo: Action Images

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