Tony Fernandes’ QPR era beginning to mirror Flavio Briatore’s four-year plan please log in to view this image Owen Gibson The QPR chairman is popular among fans but as the club stares down the barrel of another relegation from the top flight, not a lot has changed since the previous chaotic reign came to an end . • Ramsey: QPR need two wins and maybe a draw to stay up please log in to view this image Tony Fernandes was recently listed among Time magazine's most 100 influential people in the world but has not enjoyed that level of success with QPR. Photograph: Jed Leicester/Action Images @owen_g Thursday 30 April 2015 22.30 BST For clues as to how Queens Park Rangers have progressed since the Air Asia mogul Tony Fernandes walked through the door promising to polish up west London’s “rough diamond” and proceeded to go round in circles, it is worth taking a trip to their training ground. Long-mooted plans for a new training complex at Warren Farm, initially rejected in the face of protests from residents and then resubmitted in January this year, will not bear fruit for at least two years. Meanwhile, an exciting vision for a new stadium at Old Oak Common remains in flux amid opposition from the landowner Car Giant and debate over the wider regeneration of the area. So QPR carry on battling in their cramped, charming ground and are engaged in an uphill scrap against a second relegation from the top flight in three years at Chelsea’s cramped former training headquarters. For all the millions poured into the pockets of players and agents who did little to deserve it, for all the big talk and grand plans, QPR are arguably no further forward than when the likable Fernandes pitched up in 2011. “What’s happened with the training ground isn’t too dissimilar to the situation with the first team, where we brought a lot of players in and it didn’t work – we got relegated,” admitted Fernandes in January. Or as one poster on a QPR messageboard ruefully put it, Fernandes took over the team in the Premier League with debts of around £20m (following the madcap, chaotic Flavio Briatore era brilliantly captured on film in The Four Year Plan) and could this summer preside over one heading for the Championship with debts of more than £200m. For all the business acumen of Fernandes in other fields (not to mention that of the billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who owns a 30% stake in the club), during his time at QPR the club has fallen foul of all the worst excesses of the modern game. One of the puzzles of the Fernandes era has been how a man so feted elsewhere – and recently named by Time magazine as among the world’s 100 most influential people – could preside over such a chaotic rollercoaster ride at QPR. As Neil Warnock was traded in for Mark Hughes and then Harry Redknapp, the club became first stop for agents looking to offload players past their prime and whose big wages have proved a drag on the balance sheet ever since. Jermaine Jenas, a QPR player for 18 injury-hit months and now a pundit for the BBC, was the latest to confirm, on Football Focus last weekend, that work ethic were not always the first words that sprang to mind when he scanned the dressing room. As Ed Thompson points out on his Financial Fair Play blog, it is instructive to note that the Derby team that outplayed QPR in last season’s play-off final before going down to a late Bobby Zamora goal had a wage bill of around £13m. We now know that QPR’s that season was £71.96m, just £1.3m less than their previous season in the Premier League. Read the rest of it here... http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/apr/30/qpr-tony-fernandes-flavio-briatore
Holy ****, that doesn't make pleasant reading. The line that jumped out at me was, "despite the controversial loan write off (of £60m), debts grew according to the most recent accounts to more than £205m". That means our debts were more than £265m. GULP.......... I knew things were bad, I didn't realise they were that bad.
Simple mathematics Fingy, if the Football League press ahead with the £50+ million fine that is being talked about we're gonna be over the £300 million debt mark. I dread to think what our team will look like next season but it won't be pretty...
It will be very 'pretty' indeed. Fresh faced and pretty 17 year old's who will be lambs to the slaughter week in and week out. At least we'll have the team with the youngest average age.
Are 'debts' the same as 'losses'? In my simple way of looking at it, debts are owed to third parties who can call in that debt or sell it on. Our owners have no prospect of recouping anything like what they have spent from the club, and selling the debt on is pointless. Losses on the other hand I would describe in this instance as the capital they invested in the club which patently did not pay off and is gone forever.
Interesting that Mittal is much more reluctant than the Malaysians to write off big chunks of what he has loaned, and is putting in a fraction of what they have contributed into the club. I had always assumed that the loans were proportionate to shareholdings. What a ****ing mess.
I don't think so, but we would be if the Malaysians start to ask for their money back. What is beyond me is how the board and auditors can sign off the accounts as 'a going concern' every year, but I am sure those on here with a financial background can explain.
Pennies will be dropping for many on here in coming weeks Good luck brothers and sisters tomorrow off to Cyprus then home to France We have to believe we can win
I thought so too, but thinking about it, it's logical that those the control the club ie TF and his Malaysian associates, should take a far greater brunt of the loss. The Mittals seems to be there in a sort of advisory capacity, and Amit would presumably have an overseeing role reporting back to his father-in-law. I wonder how long the Mittals will be content with this arrangement - what's in it for them to have little control and have to write off even £6m of loans? We could see changes over the summer, I feel.
Either you've been visiting Oddball's Clubs recently or there's a "Fr" in front of your name away from this Board
I think you are correct ......................... my gut feeling is that TF will put this whole situation in the 'too hard basket' and move on. I would like to see the Mitals play a more active role within the club, hence creating & speaking of a direction for the club. Todate, they seem to be very reserved in their comments and action. I'm not washing my hands of TF, I just get the feeling that this club is a far greater challenge for him than he expected. Of course, I could be 100% wrong with all my views.
Any which way you cut it, Swiss Tony has added only debt to our club with no tangible benefits. If (!) we are relegated the pressure to get back in the Premiership will be immense purely for the money. I cannot see his cheap words about learning our lessons would be adhered to, he will throw money at it again and get another 'experienced' manager in.
Yes, Tony and his syndicate drive the bus, the Mittals who originally wanted to buy the bus, sit in the back as passengers. Tony's wild driving has cost money, and now the passengers have had to fork out too. The question is, how long will the passengers carry on stumping up before they either want more rights and responsibilities over driving duties, or hold their hands up and shout "enough" and jump out through the window. I feel the Mittals may force this issue if, as seems highly probably, we are relegated
More likely:- please log in to view this image please log in to view this image An increase in the Premier League’s parachute payments to relegated clubs has caused outrage among their Football League rivals. The disparity between the £23m given to those falling out of the Premier League, and the £2.3m received by the other 21 Championship teams is clearly a problem. The cost of maintaining a Premier League squad, and trying to survive amid such wealth, however, means a substantial cut could send a relegated club into freefall - or make the newly-promoted so cautious that they would be unable to participate with even a hope of staying up. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...mpic-Stadium-ONLY-option-aside-bulldozer.html
