Mittal’s Team Will Keep Players If Demoted

QPR’s Beard Says Mittal’s Team Will Keep Players If Demoted
By Tariq Panja - Mar 29, 2012 4:47 PM GMT+0300


Queens Park Rangers chief executive officer Philip Beard says the Premier League team -- part owned by billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and AirAsia Bhd (AIRA) CEO Tony Fernandes -- will keep most of its players should the club be relegated this season.

QPR is in danger of moving down to the second-division Championship. With eight games left in its season, the west London team is in the bottom three of the top English league even after spending millions on new talent and replacing its manager mid-season. It’s won just three games and lost seven since Mark Hughes replaced Neil Warnock on Jan. 10.

Fernandes led a group that in August bought a majority 66 percent stake from Formula One head Bernie Ecclestone and his partner Flavio Briatore. Since then the team’s bought eight players including strikers Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora.

“We were very active in the 10 days after the takeover in August and fairly active in January and I’ll stand behind every single one of those contracts irrespective of what happens,” Beard said during a discussion on team finance at the Soccerex conference in Manchester. QPR returned to the top division this season after 16-year absence.

“If we do not stay up, I anticipate the vast majority will stay at QPR to try and help us get back,” he said. “We’ve gone into this with our eyes wide open.”

Mittal is one of the world’s richest men. Unlike other wealthy owners in the Premier League like Roman Abramovich at Chelsea or Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayhan of Manchester City, QPR’s owners haven’t spent lavishly on building their roster. Still, they’ve spent significantly more than Norwich and Swansea, the two other teams promoted last season. Those clubs are 14 points clear of the relegation zone after 30 games.
Stabilize

“Our aim is to find a stabilized position in the Premier League over next few years,” Beard said.

Even though Hughes’s appointment hasn’t led to improved performance, Beard said the team remained committed to the former Manchester City coach.

“I don’t regret at all the decision to change manager,” he said. “We’ve just got to focus on what we are doing and I think in Mark Hughes we have an excellent manager.”

Part of the plan is to build new training facilities and find a new stadium. Beard, who worked with Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc. earlier in his career, said he’d like to use examples learned at the Staples Center, home of basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers and ice hockey’s Los Angeles Kings.

“It has to be an entertainment destination,” he said, saying though he had a preference for teams sharing stadiums, the competitive nature of English soccer meant it probably isn’t an option for QPR.

“I do think there’s a platform where discussions would take place on success and viability of ground-sharing but at the moment that’s very emotional for football fans,” Beard said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in Manchester via the London newsroom at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Elser at [email protected]


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-29/qpr-s-beard-says-mittal-s-team-will-keep-players-if-demoted.html

 

Now this is interesting.

We are suddenly Mittal's Team, with just a passing nod to Tony Fernandes.

I like that much better. Mittal is the one with money to use, and seems to re-iterate the long term plan.

I can see Fernandes and his consortium walking away in the next year or so.

 

First time I've seen it described as Mittal's team!

 

I think it is just the guy who wrote the story calling us "Mittal's team"! Not sure how much of that I believe, but I did also see this on the Official today

http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2698220,00.html

and wondered a bit on why are we appointing such people when we are in such big danger of the drop! The message seems to be that we will carry on pretty well regardless whatever League we are in next year, which these quotes from Beard echo!

 

Tariq Panja - does have an Indian feel to it - but it wouldn't completely amaze me if the Mittals bought out the TF interest over the closed season. If the Mittals take over, run the club well and put good money up, I'm prepared to become a Hindu and keep a cow in the back yard

 

bl*ddy mooing'll keep you awake all night!

 

Easyer to attract Premier League quality in january when we're still in the top flight than next summer if we're in the w*****ship. This way we stand the best chance at either retaining our top flight status or bounce straight back up. Well played PB/TF/AB/LM

 

Although I haven't given up on survival, if I were looking at the dogfight from the outside I'd say we were down. To beat the odds we'd have to start playing with a belief and cohesion not seen since last autumn. If we don't do this and go down I'm not sure this team has what it takes to get out of the Championship. It's a nice article in that it underlines the backers commitment to the club but, like many on here have said, if we do go down then a back to the drawing board approach to the playing staff should be the way forward.

 

As Tango wouldn't sell to the Mittals maybe TF was only a interim but from how TF has been this year I don't think so.

 

I think TF has done well by the club but you have to wonder what those in his syndicate think about the QPR proposition now

 

He has certainly stumped up the cash, wisely or not. So many others at other clubs have too with disastrous long-term effects. I hope they're not just talking the talk and really are here for the long haul.

 

What has Frank been telling you all this time .. He is but a face

 

I wouldn’t jump to too many conclusions about being referred to as “Mittal’s team”, tempting though it is. This Tariq fella is trying to write a story for the Bloomberg international business market, and the Mittals are well known as one of the giants of the business world, so I think he’s just trying to give the story more of an appeal to his readership’s demographic. At no point does Beard use the term “Mittal’s team”, the phrase seems to be one which the reporter has come up with himself.

 

Hurray! Ground sharing is out!

 

Forget the semantics, all this is music to my ears. If they're up for it, relegation or not, what a lift from the gloom for us lot... a huge dollop of hope with commitment, continued ambition and future stability written all over it!

The Mittal thing has been our dream as fans since those austere and harrowing days of the Goon Show - right up to the point where we were being told Mittal was no longer interested.

Well that never went with his body language did it? There's no denying Amit's affection for the club, couldn't wait for the opportunity to get back in and has done everything he can for us before and since his principled resignation.

Understand some of your reservations with the crap we've been through - but here's our star in the east. Let's just follow it and believe ffs - even if it turns out to be a UFO. Gotta have something to hang on to for a while. In the words of NW, 'joost enjoy it'!

 

Excellent as usual Brix. Spot on.

 

Thanks NUTS - but actually a bit crap - got my paragraphs the wrong way round... since edited!

 

It's reported on Talksport that Beard actually said "WHEN we are relegated" not if...

Nothing like confidence...

 

Really great news. Long day at work and come home to read this. Which ever way you look at this, I think it is good news. I am just going to take it at face value and be encouraged!

 

Great words Brix, well said.