Don't know if anyone else saw this in today's Telegraph ? "Yesterday Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Britain and owner of QPR, said that he was unsure whether he would retain his stake in the club if they were relegated. He said "It would be a big disappointment. It does matter, I want to be in the Premier League." Asked if he would consider selling his stake he replied "I don't know. I haven't thought about this." A worry ? Or non-news ??
This would be worrying but I dont believe it. I've just searched this online and can't find it. Put a link up or at leasy say what page in the paper is. Hoping this is just a wind up. Poor form if it is though
Plausible that Mittal would only want premier league football from here on in. Haven't heard much from Amit of late so could be stuff going on in the Mittal family. Lakshmi has been a bit flakey before and wouldn't be too pleased with just a third of the shares would he? If he chose to sell up, that would be bad news since he's a kind of underwriter for us financially.
Until we see some evidence in form of link to the quote then there's no point discussing it. Sort of b*ll **** we dont need day before biggest game in years
His son in law has invested too much time and emotion to just walk away. And it's not like he needs the money. His stake is worth peanuts to him. His business isn't exactly getting a lot of exposure either with us being in the PL so what difference does it make what league we're in?
Apologies - don't know how to post a link. It's today's Telegraph (hard copy), article about Hughes "pinning his hopes on rattling City"....Page 5. Not a wind up honest !! PS Apology accepted PD........... :-(
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/queens-park-rangers/9261709/Manchester-City-v-QPR-Mark-Hughes-pins-his-hopes-on-rattling-former-club.html
Read it again - doesn't say anything at all. It's important to stay up - we all agree. Hasn't thought about anything else.
I would take it with a pinch of salt. When ever these quotes come out in papers you do have to ask the questions 1. why after all the TF and Amit talk about long term goals and future would he suddenly say this? 2. If Mittal would pull out because of relegation is he really the right person for QPR? 3. if he craves Prem football why did he not support NW with funds at the begining of the season? 4. if he was to leave then CB's 'Russian Billionare' could finally take over Seriously i think Mittal has the QPR bug and i wouldn't worry about a few miss placed quotes.
My take was that a journo caught Mittal off guard, and quite rightly Mittal only wanted to focus about this season and positive stuff.
I can't imagine that LM would have said that. My guess is that it's the journo cutting and pasting answers to make a bit of a story, rather than words out of his mouth.
I thought Amit looked a little a bit subdued in the Director's box against Stoke. Hope there's nothing up!!
As I've understood the Mittal Rangers story so far. Whilst Lakshmi's always had an interest in football (as a kid in India, paid pocket money for the hire of a periscope to watch the local team over their boundary wall), he's had no particular interest in this country. However, business dealings with Ecclestone led to a meeting in Park Lane office sometime in 2007. Ecclestone talked Lakshmi into buying shares in QPR. 20% initially, rising to c.32% a year or two later. Pretty good price at the time. Estimated at around £30m all told. Part of the deal introduced Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia and his uni-mate Ishan Saksena into the equation. Amit on the board as vice-Chair, Ishan on finance. Amit quickly caught the QPR bug and worked on background developments with supporters and community initiatives. The foreground of team affairs was a comedy of errors and ongoing misfortune headed-up by Ecclestone's partner, Fabio Briatore aka buffoon. By the middle of the 2009/10 season, Briatore smelt the coffee and edged away from things QPR. Amit brought a proper manager in and we got promoted. The ever-cool Lakshmi warmed to the celebratory fervour and hinted at further investment without the need for a profitable return. He reportedly reasoned that football is not a business, it's an entertainment. Around the same time, Ecclestone hinted at disinterest. Didn't want to spend silly money on football. Briatore returned with hair-brained plans for a boutique future for the club in which traditional fans and their '£20 tickets' would become a thing of the past. The Goons, as we called them, raised ticket prices to £50. Amit resigned on principle. The Mittals, however, planned a buy out, confident that Ecclestone would sell for a reasonable price. Ecclestone was reportedly offended by Mittals' audacious offer of £50m. Animosity closed the door on any chance of a deal with Mittal. Ecclestone eventually sold to a Fernandes-led consortium and Amit was reappointed as part of. Many of us thought that Fernandes would sell to Mittal but hasn't. The club provides Fernandes with hi-viz publicity platform in the UK. Now we find the £20m or so investment in last minute prem players wasn't enough to secure prem survival. Unsurprising really. Despite his son-in-law's ongoing enthusiasm, I can see why a winner like Lakshmi Mittal, who has never been that keen on either sport or QPR, might be less than interested in the event of our being relegated tomorrow. Clearly takes a lot more than money to maintain the will to ride this Rangers rollercoaster of ours!
The Mittals wanted to buy the Goon's interest in the club. Failed, and have gone along for the ride in the Prem as minority shareholder. If we get relegated, the Mittals could go one of two ways. Sell the minority and buy...well, Lakshmi Mittal can afford any club he likes - alternatively, buy out TF and his consortium for a good price (being a Championship club). So if we go down, it does seem quite possible that one or other of our joint owners backs out and leaves 100% to the remaining owner.
I wonder if LM would sell to AB - as Brixton said, he appears to have gone down with the blue and white virus....!
