Former Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale has told BBC Five Live's Sportsweek programme he is saddened by the club's plight but insists he is not to blame.
Leeds will be relegated to League One unless they score a hatful of goals to beat Derby on 6 May and Hull City lose.
Ridsdale left Leeds in April 2003, with the club more than £100m in debt.
He said: "It is 12 months since they were in the play-off final yet people say decisions made years ago caused this situation, which is not the case."
Ridsdale, who is now chairman of Cardiff City, infamously declared "United had lived the dream" before he left the club.
Leeds dropped out of Premiership in 2004 but almost returned last season when they lost to Watford in the Championship play-off final.
Now they are staring relegation to League One in the face and Ridsdale says they must stop pinning the blame on his regime.
"Until people there concentrate on the future I don't think they have got a chance of coming back," he added.
"They have got to regroup now. They are a very big club off the field but what matters in football is what happens on the field - and too many people are feeling sorry for themselves."
Leeds could face the prospect of disciplinary action after Saturday's 1-1 draw with Ipswich was halted for 30 minutes because of a pitch invasion with less than a minute of the match remaining.
Ipswich striker Alan Lee's late equaliser at Elland Road, together with Hull's win at Cardiff, as good as sealed Leeds' fate.
Dennis Wise's side are three points behind the Tigers and also need to make up a goal difference deficit of nine goals.
Wise, who has been Leeds manager since October, accepted the club are all but down.
"It's a sad day. It's a sad day for me, a sad day for the players, a sad day for the fans and a sad day for everyone involved in this football club," he said.
"It's an impossible task now, I think, but everyone knows that. Nine goals difference, so it's more or less done.
"But we've done everything we could possibly do. I take full responsibility for everything that has happened because we're big people but unfortunately we haven't done what we came here to do.
"We're sad, we're disappointed. "I could say a lot of things but I'm not going to sit here and make excuses.
"As a group, as a manager, it has not been good enough."
But Wise was adamant he and his assistant Gus Poyet will still be in charge next season.
"We'll have them from the start. There's a lot of things we'll do and we'll do it properly," the former Chelsea midfielder explained.
"We'll make sure these players we have are fit and strong enough and mentally strong enough to get us up.
"I'll be sitting down with the chairman and will discuss everything and we'll take it from there.
"I didn't come here only for five months. I came to be here for a lot longer than that.
"This is a terrible time for us but one thing is for sure, we'll be giving it as much as possible to get them straight back up."
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