It’s a strange situation when the self proclaimed Sheriff of Leeds has been calmly told to put down his badge and gun, step slowly away from the township and become a regular civilian. Until April. At which point he can get back to whatever he does here. Or can he?

Before I stumble into increasingly tenuous Wild West references, it’s worth considering the wider implications of Cellino’s appeal being rejected. While the press are writhing in journalistic ecstacy at the easy news opportunity and fans are puffing out their chests and shouting opinions as loud as social media allows, the long-term future of Massimo Cellino is worthy of consideration.

The short term

Massimo Cellino is banned from owning Leeds United until 10th April 2015. While there’s greater clarity needed on actually how much he needs to step away from the club (and whether entities such as his family owned Eleonora Sports company are allowed to retain control), we know that the Sheriff cannot personally control things for this period.

However we know that one of Massimo’s biggest failings is his inability to deputise; there isn’t seemingly anyone at the club experienced at steering a ship like Leeds United in his absence. Granted, Massimo may attempt to run it via remote control, but whether the FL allow that is doubtful at best.

We do know that Massimo needs to step down within 48 hours of the ruling, meaning he’ll need to have abdictated by Wednesday lunchtime. The current ruling suggests he can return to his gun-toting, tobacco chewing Sheriff-ship in April. But is that the end of things?

More trouble to come

What most fans don’t realise is that this is just one of several hurdles Massimo must conquer. And by conquer, I mean casually stroll through, kicking the hurdle over, then entering a lengthy legal process to explain why such a hurdle was enforced solely to victimise him.

Ridiculously, there is a second yacht tax ruling yet to be considered in England. Cellino has been accused of evading £75,000 of tax on a second yacht (the ironically named “Lucky 23”), for which a new trial date is pending announcement. The Football League will watch this as intently as they have the Nelie incident.

You can guarantee that if he’s found guilty of tax evasion, there’s another ban coming to the tune of 12 months – although granted, we can expect Massimo to distance the case to reduce the physical length of the ban, but it’s still further turbulence.

Add to this that the Football League have accused Leeds United (read: Massimo Cellino) of withholding information and otherwise artificially adding turbulence to an otherwise conventional process. The penalties for this could be hurtful to more than just the mad Italian.

A troubled year ahead, is it worth it?

Cellino (when interviewed recently) candidly seemed frustrated, exhausted even, fatigued by the ceaseless and vindictive nature of the English legal system. Or, perhaps when viewed objectively, he’s frustrated that our legal system is less willing to overlook fraud.

I have a degree of compassion for his case, though, given that he’s being punished for cases in Italy that are pending a ruling – in their legal system until the appeals process has been sufficiently exhausted he is not officially guilty.

But fundamentally the Football League are merely trying to ensure that corrupt individuals are not allowed to run clubs under their rule; which is a fair objective. Granted, there is a solid argument for critcising a test that allows GFH but prevents Massimo owning a club, but they’re still actively trying to protect the club and themselves.

The point is, Massimo is going to be hounded by legal troubles until he’s able to clear his name in Italy – which could take more than a year. The Football League will continue to ban him for wrongdoings and this places Leeds United into a near-permanent pergatory. With off-pitch issues adding turbulence and preventing on-pitch growth, it cannot be in the best interests of the club to endure this.

Part of me thinks that Cellino will rage-quit and step away permanently. Combine that suspicion with the rumours of various investors sniffing around the club towards the end of last year and the cynical mind could form a solid argument for a Cellino-free Plan B being in place.

I do think Massimo loves football (considering he treats the club like Football Manager) so he must be feeling frustrated by these self-inflicted legal problems. Purely from a pro-Leeds standpoint, the ongoing turmoil is hurting the club. While the current ban might only be short, we’re in for months and months of this while Massimo stays in charge.

Not that I’m specifically saying he should leave, I’m merely stating that the disruptive circus that currently surrounds him is perhaps more damaging than any good he can do. He needs to sort himself out or move on; this kind of chaos relegates teams and we sure as hell don’t deserve another one of those.

On and on. Or something.