David Lawrence Haigh is a British human rights lawyer and international crisis and media manager.
Haigh is the former managing director of Leeds United Football Club and Chairman of Leeds United Ladies Football Club and was the first openly LGBTQ managing director of an English football club. He is the chief executive officer and founder of the Sport Capital Group, a financier of Leeds United Football Club. Haigh was convicted of fraud charges in Dubai and spent 22 months in prison, where he claims that he was tortured and raped. He denies all allegations and claims he was set up. He is a campaigner for human rights and justice in the UAE, specifically on unfair trials, torture, Interpol , and extraditions.
Haigh is the founder and managing director of Haigh International Justice, a dispute resolution, crisis, and media management strategic advisor. He co-founded Legal Advocacy NGO Detained International in 2018. Haigh is an active campaigner for anti-homophobia in sport, credited with helping pave the way for LGBT players and managers in football.
Education
Haigh attended Cape Cornwall School, England. He then studied at the University of Southampton, where he graduated with a degree in law and attended law school at the College of Law in London.
Career
Haigh is an international human rights lawyer, a solicitor of the Senior Court of England and Wales (non-practicing). He has practiced law in the United Kingdom, the Caribbean, and Dubai. He joined West Mayfair law firm Palmer Cowen (later Fairmays LLP) in 2001 and has worked at several international law firms including DLA Piper and US law firm Akin Gump.
Haigh was the co-founder, along with Radha Stirling, and managing partner of Stirling Haigh, an international dispute resolution, crisis management, and strategic advisory firm.
He co-founded Detained International, a London-based legal advocacy NGO that provides pro bono legal advocacy to victims of injustice, inequality, and other human rights violations in the UAE and the wider Middle East.
Haigh was chairman of Conservatives Abroad UAE and vice chairman of Gulf Tories and as its vice-chairman.
Football
Haigh led GFH Capital's negotiations with the then-owner of Leeds United, Ken Bates, for the acquisition of the club. The agreement was formally announced at a press conference at Elland Road in November 2012. Haigh joined the Leeds United board in February 2013. On 1 July 2013, Haigh was made managing director of the club following the departure of now Football League CEO Shaun Harvey. On 11 April 2014, Haigh resigned as managing director following the purchase of the club by Massimo Cellino.
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. 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. Following the failure of the acquisition Sport Capital remained a financier of Leeds United.
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.
LGBTQ+ Advocacy
In 2013 Haigh became the first openly gay managing director of an English football club, Leeds United. 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. 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.
In 2017, Haigh, Diva and OutNewsGlobal publisher Linda Riley and Gay Times co-launched #ComeOut2Play to support LGBTQ footballers to come out. Come out to play achieved 40 million supporters in 6 weeks.
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.