QPR quest ends Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate, is ready to walk away from Queens Park Rangers weeks before it makes a triumphant return to the Premier League. The Indian billionaire is open to selling his 33 per cent stake in the club after a bust-up with Formula 1âs Bernie Ecclestone, who has a 62 per cent share. This spring, Mr Mittal was looking into increasing his stake to become the majority shareholder but had no joy; Mr Ecclestone said at the time: âLots of people say they are going to buy things until they eventually find these things are not for sale.â Mr Mittalâs son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, stepped down as vice-chairman of the club as a result. Mr Mittal now says he is âready to divest [his] stakeâ and is âno longer lookingâ at taking control. Meanwhile, the club said on Thursday it was in talks with a potential suitor. Mr Ecclestone might wish to clear up questions over QPR ownership, if only to allow him time to focus on an investigation by German prosecutors into payments he allegedly made to a banker in conjunction with the 2005 sale of shares in F1 to buy-out group CVC Capital Partners. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/43f01cb2-b907-....l#axzz1TnOFQ8Bq
The fact he's been directly quoted saying things like 'ready to divest [his] stake' worries me Goldie... In the end it wasn't good enough that the Mittals were able to deliver Briatore's 'Four Year Plan' on time without the Goons being around. Perhaps that should read 'in spite of the Goons' given Paladini's role in almost blowing our promotion push out of the water... 'In the best interests of the club' is the mantra for anyone with a shred of integrity. In circumstances where everything's working and the punters are pleased, decent people would either sell up and move on or at least leave the (reprehensible) Mittal boys to it. Not so Ecclestone and Briatore. No, they jumped in trying to fix what weren't broke. All the sensitivity of a Great White, these Goons. Little chance now it would seem, of recapturing the harmony of last season then. Such a shame. Now we've got to wait and see who the owners turn out to be and then a longer wait to see what they're likely to bring with them. Investment would be a good start but we also need the vision and presence of someone like Amit Bhatia.
Nail + Head again. I would be so much more enthusiastic about the upcoming season if I knew Bhatia/Saksena were still at the club. Proper gents.
The big question if this is true will be who will buy his stake? He'll find it hard to recoup his money from the Goons so that would suggest another investor, Russian perhaps? The soap opera continues...
I think they have gone, for real this time! enough is enough, even for the good guys! Sad, but bound to have happened. I do hope things will come good, but I doubt it! I feel things are going from bad to worse. I think it would be great to be back in the old 3thd Div: why? you may ask, well we only had one way to go then and that was UP! But now we will be up & down!
Worse than that, this is all starting to smell a bit. Someone's getting played here, and I reckon it's us!
Sad if true. While it cannot be taken away from Paladini/Briatore/Ecclestone the fact that they saved the club, put us on a solid footing and moved us to the big league, for which we should all be hugely grateful. the fact is they treat the fans, the lifeblood of the club as complete ****s, and then expect us to tream them as some sort of demi-gods. Amit and Ishan always treated the fans with respect, and brought sensilbilty to the club, and thats while I will always be grateful for what they did for us.
Newsnight man and QPR fan: RaymondSnoddy Raymond Snoddy by staineshoops@ @repstar_and_QPR Mittal would be best of all but alas he told an FT reporter after his results meeting on Friday he wasn't interested
Noted CernyB. Another prophesy nearing confirmation. That'll be two including the Thursday one. Now I'm really rooting for you on the Mordashov prediction!!
Mr Mittal has an big advantage over us,he can walk away as weve got a life sentence!!!Maybe its good if Mittal sells up his shares and moves on ,better now than leaving us in the **** a bit down the line.
agreed,just pretty dissapointed that were losing such a well-off benefactor! God knows who were going to get
I hope this isnt true, but from the sounds of that quote it looks pretty terminal. Tragic waste after all that Bhatia and Saksena did for the club. Gutted.
