David Haigh

Haigh led GFH Capital's negotiations with the then-owner of Leeds United, Ken Bates, for the acquisition of the club.[18] The agreement was formally announced at a press conference at Elland Road in November 2012.[19] Haigh joined the Leeds United board in February 2013.[20] On 1 July 2013, Haigh was made managing director of the club following the departure of now Football League CEO Shaun Harvey.[20][21] On 11 April 2014, Haigh resigned as managing director following the purchase of the club by Massimo Cellino.[20]

In November 2013 Haigh and Andre Flowers, managing director of Enterprise Insurance, formed a consortium called Sport Capital to purchase the majority of the shares in the club from GFH Capital.[22] Haigh is said to have fallen out with GFH Capital after they sold the club to Italian businessman Massimo Cellino and not Sport Capital. Sport Capital then launched a £33.5 million claim against GFH Capital.[23] Following the failure of the acquisition Sport Capital remained a financier of Leeds United.[24]

After the Cornish non-league side Penzance AFC reached out to Haigh on social media looking for help, he joined the board as a committee member with the team sitting bottom of the South West Peninsula League Division One West, the 11th tier of English football.[25]

In 2013 Haigh became the first openly gay managing director of an English football club, Leeds United.[26][27][28] In November 2017, Pink News credited Haigh along with Robbie Rogers and Thomas Hitzlsperger with paving the way for LGBTQ players and managers in football.[29][30] In December 2013, Leeds United, became the first Stonewall Diversity Champion in English football, championing gay equality within the club and Football and former Leeds and LA Galaxy player Robbie Rogers, became one of the first male professional football players to come out as gay, launching his Beyond It anti-discrimination charity with Haigh at Leeds United.[31][32]

In 2017, Haigh, Diva and OutNewsGlobal publisher Linda Riley and Gay Times co-launched #ComeOut2Play[33] to support LGBTQ footballers to come out.[34][35][27][26][30] Come out to play achieved 40 million supporters in 6 weeks.[36][37]

In 2017, Haigh was appointed to the Cornwall County Football Association Inclusivity Advisory Group in 2017 to advise on LGBTQ matters and diversity in Cornish football. In 2019 he joined the management board of the Cornwall County Football Association and became the Chairman of its Inclusivity Advisory group.[38][30][39]

In 2020, Haigh was shortlisted for the National Diversity Awards – Positive Role Model for LGBTQ. He was nominated again in 2022 for the National Diversity Award – Positive Role Model LGBTQ and Positive Role Model Disability alongside Detained International.[40][41][42]

In 2017 a UK court in Scotland held that Haigh had been tortured and raped by the police in Dubai, Haigh gave evidence in court at the Sheriffdom of Lothian and Borders at Edinburgh. Sheriff Thomas Welsh QC, presiding, accepted Haigh's detailed testimony, saying "David Haigh struck me as an honest intelligent witness who gave his evidence with calm dignity. He was obviously a man who had been significantly physically and psychologically damaged by his ordeal in the UAE and was in the process of what I consider will be a long recovery".[52]

In July 2018, a Dubai judge Justice Jeremy Cooke in the Dubai International Finance Centre Courts in a hearing where Haigh was not present or represented held that Haigh had fraudulently directed funds.[49] Haigh was ordered to pay nearly £3.8 million plus costs, and his counterclaims were dismissed.[49] GFH said it would start enforcement proceedings against Haigh in Dubai and London.[48][53]

While in Dubai Haigh hired English barrister Alun Jones QC and Thom Dyke and Keystone law Alison Bradley and Mark Spragg to file a private prosecution against GFH and their former lawyer Peter Gray of Gibson Dunn for human trafficking and fraud.[54] Haigh withdrew the application when he lost access to lawyers. After his release from prison Haigh took the case to judicial review at the High Court in England, and the court ruled against him in May 2020.[55]

Haigh's hired WikiLeaks lawyer Melinda Taylor and Alun Jones QC to take the UAE to the United Nations for breaches of his human rights including, torture, unfair trial, arbitrary detention and discrimination on grounds of sexuality.[56]

Following release from jail in the UAE, Haigh has had a battle with PTSD. Haigh was reported to have felt "suicidal" whilst detained in 2015 following being tortured and raped.[57] While imprisoned he spoke about these feelings with prisoner charity Prisoners Abroad.[58]

Haigh spent two months in the Priory Hospital in 2015.[59]

In August 2021, Amnesty International confirmed that Haigh was the first British person to have evidence on his mobile phone that it had been hacked by NSO spyware in August 2020.[60] At the time, Haigh was representing hostage Dubai Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum.[61] Haigh had been exchanging videos and text messages in secret for more than a year and a half with Latifa through a phone that had been smuggled into the Dubai villa where she was being held. She stopped responding on 21 July 2020, according to a screenshot of the messages Haigh shared. The analysis shows that Haigh's phone was hacked two weeks later.[62]