Former Leeds United FC managing director David Haigh has launched legal proceedings to have arrest warrants issued for two senior members of the Dubai-based investment bank of which he was formerly general counsel.

The application – which has been lodged at Westminster Magistrates Court by Stephenson Harwood and Alun Jones QC of Great James Street Chambers – requests arrest warrants for GFH Capital managing director Hisham Al Rayes and CEO Jinesh Patel.

Haigh (pictured) – who has now been held for nine months without charge in a Dubai prison after being accused of financial irregularities by GFH – maintains that he was lured to Dubai under false pretences so he could be locked up without trial.

He was arrested last year in Dubai in relation to claims by GFH that he was involved in the misappropriation of