Leeds owner Massimo Cellino will be forced to sell his controlling stake in the club if an Italian judge rules that his recent tax evasion conviction was an act of "dishonesty," Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey said yesterday.

Harvey said the long wait for a full judgement left "a cloud still hanging over the Football League and the club and Mr Cellino himself."

Cellino was found guilty in March of evading tax on his luxury yacht but he was allowed to take over at Elland Row pending an appeal.

The Italian judge will confirm in a report expected in June if Cellino has committed a "dishonest act" which would be sufficient for him to fail the League's owners' and directors' test.

"It's exceptionally disappointing that we haven't actually had the judgment, if only to draw a line under the whole scenario so that everyone knows where they are," said Harvey, himself a former chief executive at Leeds.

The Football Leauge made it clear that if the judgement showed dishonesty "then at that stage he would fail the owners' and directors' test and as such wouldn't be able to be a director of the football club or exert any control," Harvey said.

"He is under an obligation to divest himself of his shares at that stage.

"From our perspective he then fails the owners' and directors' test and at that stage the provisions are in the rules that he has to divest himself of his interests.

"We'd obviously give the club a reasonable period of time to organise its affairs because you wouldn't want to put the future of the club at risk immediately that you had a decision."

The Italian judgement's publication has been repeatedly delayed.

"We have been asked to be kept informed," said Harvey. "Our influence over the judicial system in Italy is somewhat limited.

"We have Italian lawyers monitoring it for us and we've been told it will come out when it comes out. That's how the Italian judicial system has been described to us."