The Football League must decide whether to officially ratify the takeover of Leeds by Massimo Cellino at a board meeting on Thursday as questions remain over how long the Italian businessman will remain in control at Elland Road.

Cellino was due to arrive in England from Sardinia yesterday to assume his role as president of the Yorkshire club after an independent lawyer overturned the Football League's decision to bar him from becoming an owner.

The league blocked Cellino's takeover on March 24, ruling that the 57-year-old's conviction for tax evasion in a Sardinia court on March 18 disqualified him under its owners and directors test.

But Cellino secured an unexpected victory on Saturday following a successful appeal.

Following six-hour deliberations at a hearing last Monday, Tim Kerr QC initially reserved judgement and then announced he had overturned the league's decision after Leeds's defeat in the Saturday lunch time kick-off at Wigan.

Kerr's ruling ended a two-month wait for Cellino, whose company Eleonora Sport exchanged contracts with previous Leeds owner Gulf Finance House Capital to buy 75 per cent of the club's shares on February 7.

Cellino, clear to complete his takeover, said he will now set about transforming Leeds into a Premier League force, but the saga has not yet run its course.

The Italian's disqualification under the league's owners and directors test related to the non-payment of import duties on his yacht Nelie. He pleaded not guilty but was convicted in a Sardinian court, fined 600,000 euros (£500,800) and had the boat confiscated.

The league argued this considered dishonest under its test, which bars any person from becoming an owner or a director of a football club if they have "unspent convictions for offences of dishonesty."

Cellino's lawyers said he was appealing against the Sardinia court's conviction and his legal team at the league hearing argued the agricultural mogul had not yet been convicted due to the procedural nature of Italian law.

Kerr disagreed and ruled that Cellino had been convicted, but because the judge in Sardinia Dr Sandra Lepore had not yet given her written reasons for the conviction. The independent QC could not rule that he had acted dishonestly.

The league must therefore decide on Thursday whether it can give Cellino the go-ahead in the knowledge it could be forced to disqualify him later this summer.