News: Leeds United hung up the "for sale" sign yesterday after admitting they had received a takeover approach from a Bahraini sheikh.

As the debt-laden club secured a seven-week breathing space from their creditors, they revealed Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mubarak al-Khalifa had approached with a possible offer.

The club, which have enough money to continue operating until January 19th, made it clear it was by no means certain the sheikh would formally table a bid that would see them being taken over.

But they admitted they would need to find people that were either prepared to a make a "substantial investment" in the business or even take it over.

If Leeds fail to do so by the January deadline, the club expect to have to call in the administrators, who would protect it from their £80 million debts.

A potential bid could be made by deputy chairman Allan Leighton, who yesterday confirmed his resignation from the board. Leighton, who is also chairman of Royal Mail and internet business lastminute.com, had left the board, the club said, to "avoid any conflict of interest should he decide to become involved in any future funding or purchase of the business".

Until last month he had been working on injecting £4.4 million into the club - along with the sheikh - but the plan had to be abandoned when doubts emerged about the Bahraini's commitment to put up his money. The club was instead left to negotiate a lifeline from their creditors, who have agreed to forego repayments on debt until January 19th and provide it with enough operating capital.

The negotiations have been conducted by former Chelsea chief executive Trevor Birch, who now holds the same position at Leeds.

Dr Bill Gerrard, of Leeds University Business School, said last night's announcement provided hope for the fans. "The bottom line is Leeds have payments coming up in the next few weeks which they don't have cash for and the only way they could have met them was to sell players or go into administration," he said.

"The immediate threat of administration has receded and the club is not going to default in the next five to six weeks and that means the club does not have to sell players when the transfer window reopens."

One of the club's remaining top players, Alan Smith, yesterday confessed he wasbaffled by the situation at his home town club:

"You find yourself wondering what went wrong. When people speak to you, you don't really know.

"Players were sold without any question. When you look at the players that have passed through the club, it was a team that was able to win a championship and that's wrong.

"But we're the ones that have to pick up the pieces now and try and start building again. We're going to have to cope with the situation we're in."

As for his own immediate future, Smith added: "I don't know what the future holds for myself because of the financial situation. I've thought about it and I still don't know where I stand."