Up to four bids tabled for Leeds

Leeds United's future is a step closer to being resolved tonight after the deadline for lodging all bids to administrators KPMG passed at 5pm.

KPMG put the troubled League One club up for sale on Friday, and they could now be considering bids from up to four different parties.

One of those is led by Ken Bates, who placed the club into administration at the end of last season, but his latest bid - which would have seen creditors paid back 8p in the pound - was challenged by the Inland Revenue, who are the club's main creditors.

The Redbus group - led by Simon Franks - are thought to have made a bid for the club, along with local property developer Simon Morris, while former Hull chairman Adam Pearson has been heavily linked with a bid, having sold the Championship side last month.

A brief statement on the club's official website, www.leedsunited.com, read: "The deadline for bids for Leeds United has now passed, and administrators KPMG have told the club an announcement will be made in due course. The administrators had set a deadline of 5pm on Monday for interested parties to table bids for the club."

Bates has threatened to sue if his bid is not accepted, claiming on Sunday that his bid was valid and therefore must be accepted.

"We believe in fact our offer is valid," he told Yorkshire Radio. "Therefore it should be the only one to be accepted. So there's a problem and a possibility that if the administrator goes down another route then there could be further legal battles.

"After all, we haven't come all this way over the last two and a half years, borrowed and spent all that money, got the club turned round, got rid of all the bad organisation that the previous regimes left in place to go out without a fight."

KPMG are expected to reveal which of the bids they feel is best suited for the club tomorrow.