Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has revealed he imposed the controversial 'pie-tax' in response to criticism from the club's fans.

Leeds began charging an additional £5 on every ticket bought in the South Stand of Elland Road in early December, with hot food and a drink included, leading to severe backlash from supporters.

Cellino explained in an interview in Italian why he added the surcharge and his confession is not likely to be met positively by the Elland Road faithful.

"At some point someone told me: 'Cellino, Cellino' - [about] twenty supporters of my team – 'time to go,'" Cellino said.

"So I said: 'but why don't you go away?' And the supporters [replied]: 'we pay!'

"I [replied]: 'No, you pay to see the game. To criticise me you need to pay an extra' and I put five pounds more for each ticket.'

"Consider that in England you can't live only on television rights. The Leeds society lives with tickets and beer, that is sold at the stadium, and season tickets.

"We collect about £40million per year with season tickets and beers only. So if you put the stand in front of the stadium with a bar to sell the beers, what can I do?

"So I said: 'those that go to this bar, that are the friends of this guy, because they are the supporters that criticise us also, they need to pay 20 plus five pounds with beer included.'

"And they are very angry and criticise me for this."