FOOTBALL League chairman Brian Mawhinney has dismissed Leeds supremo Ken Bates' calls for him to quit his post.

Bates hit out at Mawhinney despite an arbitration panel ruling in favour of the Football League on Thursday following the League One side's 15-point deduction for breaking competition rules on insolvency.

However, Mawhinney, who had been warned his position was untenable and that the League's directors should also consider their own positions, said it would be business as usual.

My guess is that Mr Bates is on his way back to Monaco and I am on my way back to the Football League offices in London at the beginning of next week,'' he said.

In every respect the arbitration panel found in our favour and against Leeds. There was no aspect of their case that got approval from the panel, we were vindicated in everything we did.

We read Leeds' case carefully and we didn't find it persuasive, neither did the arbitration panel.

The truth is old Leeds went into administration, it happened to be the same people in charge but it was a new company. There were conditions attached and Leeds made a deal in order to be able to play in our league, but they broke that deal and the panel took a very dim view of it.'' The Whites were hoping to overturn the deduction, which would have handed them automatic promotion back to the Coca-Cola Championship, but are still guaranteed a play-off berth ahead of today's final league match of the campaign at home to Gillingham.

Frankly, Mr Bates is a wily and experienced man,'' added Mawhinney.

If I had lost the battle as comprehensively as Leeds did, I can understand why he is trying to distract attention.

Ken doesn't want people to focus on that and that's why he is focusing on me, but the people of Leeds and people in football are far too clever to be taken in.

I have huge sympathy for the Leeds fans, a lot of them have supported the club for years and will continue to do so, so from a fan point of view I am extremely sympathetic.

But we at the league have to deal with the legal entities that are the 72 Football League clubs.

What we cannot do is ignore the fact that when a club does into administration it sheds frequently millions of pounds of debt and that gives it an unfair competitive advantage against other teams. The league is there to protect the integrity of the competition.'' Mawhinney admitted he had been impressed with the club's performances on the pitch this season and claimed he would be the first to congratulate them should they prevail at the league One play-off final on May 25.