Leeds will today announce they have staved off administration until the end of the season but admit long-term survival is dependent on avoiding relegation.
The chances of doing that suffered a major blow at the weekend with Wolves' victory over Manchester United and Leeds' defeat at Southampton leaving the Yorkshire club bottom of the Premiership.
And chief executive Trevor Birch conceded administration was a near certainty if Leeds find themselves in the Nationwide League next season.
"It would be extremely likely I would have to say," Birch said. "It depends on how you restructure and what you can do with players' contracts. You can't say it's an absolute certainty but it would be on the cards. We are very close to the precipice.
"We are over £80 million in debt and we wouldn't have the income to support that in the first division. We are trading at the moment with the support of our principle creditors. We are trying to put the club in the right shape to be attractive for someone to invest."
However, Birch concedes the club is not an attractive proposition while relegation looms on the horizon, despite securing an extension to the "standstill agreement" with their creditors to secure the £5 million needed to run the club until the end of the season.
"The number one option is to survive in the Premiership, if we can do that at the end of the season we have a different proposition to put to people," Birch admitted on Sky Sports News.
Birch also admitted Sheikh Abdulrahman Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, supposedly behind a bid to save the club, had failed to show Leeds "the colour of his money" on several occasions.