QPR's Week in Review: Victories, Injury and Financial "Issues" and Allegations

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ON THE FIELD...
The week began with QPR's away victory at Wycombe...then 3-0 win at Harrow Borough and ended with QPR's home victory over Fulham. But obviously the biggest on-the-field news was Simon Walton's seeming having broken his leg. Ben Sahar and Mancienne supposedly officially began their QPR loans August 1, although there was no official statement by Chelsea (or QPR)
Gregory spoke about how close he was to giving up on Lee Camp chase and how had no more money to spend after Camp and Walton signings..
Meanwhile Tribal Football reported that Italian Serie B club, Brescia give chance to QPR's Nick Ward


OFF THE FIELD..ALLEGATION & DENIAL RE TRANSFER EMBARGO...ABC LOAN...SUPPOSED TALKS WITH POTENTIAL NEW BUYERS...CLUB'S FINANCIAL STATUS

September 29 - Sunday Mirror QPR chief Paladini to sell up
EXCLUSIVE By Paul Smith 29/07/2007
Gianni Paladini's troubled reign as QPR owner is set to come to an end this week.
The former football agent has agreed a £5million takeover at Loftus Road - just as Rangers have been hit by Football League sanctions.
Paladini said last night: "I've agreed in principle to sell the club. I'm selling the vast majority of my shares but I will be retaining a position at the club. The deal has not been signed off yet but I expect it to go through next week."
League bosses have withheld central funds from the club and placed a transfer embargo on Rangers, who have announced several recent deals.
Rangers must re-pay the entire £500,000 loan they received from Oldham Athletic which breached League regulations. Paladini insists the outstanding £300,000 from this loan will be repaid this week. Sunday Mirror

Sky Sports and News of the World just reporting/repeating what was in the Sunday Mirror story - Sky Report

July 29 QPR1st Statement - Recent Events at QPR

July 30 - QPR1st "Further Response from QPR"
"Further response from QPR on the ABC Loan" including from Nick De Marco - QPRst-

September 30 - QPR DIRECTOR NICK DE MARCO (Via QPR1sT)

The original ABC loan
Last week former QPR chairman, Nick Blackburn, contacted me about the statement I made about the ABC loan last weekend. He was keen to correct what he said was a widespread misapprehension repeated in my statement, namely that QPR “came out of administration with far greater debts than it went into it”. According to Mr Blackburn, QPR went into administration with £13 million debts and came out with a debt of £10 million to ABC. I said that I would look into this and would be happy to correct the misunderstanding if the figures matched Mr Blackburn’s assertion.

I have looked at the various account for the period before, during and after administration. They are not as clear as our accounts are these days because at that stage they included the accounts for other parts of the then “Loftus Road plc” group which included the Rugby team. However, I see no reason to disbelieve Mr Blackburn’s assertions, and so it should not be said that the Club came out of administration with more debts than it had when it went in, and I have asked that that part of the previous statement I made be deleted.

The discussion with Mr Blackburn opened up some other interesting issues concerning the origins of the ABC loan. Mr Blackburn confirmed that the loan was used primarily to pay back creditors, the largest of which was Chris Wright, as was the sale of the Club’s Twyford Avenue training ground. The accounts show the Club paid £3.5 million back to to Chris Wright on coming out of administration, which meant he received just over 50p in the pound for his investment into QPR. Much of the remainder of the monies went to lawyers and other people involved in the administration process who were charging very high professional fees. It would appear that Chris Wright was able to secure a relatively good, considering administration, return as a result of the ABC loan being taken out. For example, people will be aware that following the administration of Leeds, creditors have been offered 8p in the pound. There is nothing improper about this, but as a matter of opinion I don’t think it appropriate, from the Club’s point of view, to come out of administration with a crippling loan in order to repay an investor who has, after all, taken the risk of football investment. Taking a loan out for this purpose (as opposed to avoiding administration) is something I would hope the Club would never repeat.

There are also further questions that have arisen out of the circumstances of the loan. Many of these have been rehearsed before. I don’t personally intend to go over old ground and examine these matters again – although if Mr Blackburn is concerned that the Administrators decision to take out the ABC loan has been unfairly criticised, then I would encourage him to set the record straight.

It remains our opinion that many of the financial difficulties the Club has faced since go back to the ABC loan itself and of course the financial circumstances that led to the loan being taken out. There is no doubt that running a football club such as ours, with the best will in the world, has always been extremely difficult from a financial point of view. Whatever the criticisms people have of past or current boards of directors, I am sure all have done their best to balance the books in difficult circumstances.

There is now, however, some light at the end of the tunnel and a serious prospect of attracting new investment and putting these difficulties, and the ABC loan, permanently behind us. Many of us are working hard to secure this investment over the next few weeks. If it comes off, we will be able to consign the discussions and post mortems about ABC and all the rest to the musings of football historians and concentrate on what should be a very bright future. I am sure fans will understand if the Board concentrates on securing the new investment over the next period, rather than responding to every piece of speculation in the media. As soon as it is possible to make an official announcement one will be made" QPR1st

July 30 - Gianni Paladini on BBC Radio London - QPR Rivals's Clive Whittingham report of Paladini's comments including "...The embargo was put on us before we started to pay money back to Blitz - now we're paying it back the embargo has been lifted..." - QPR Rivals

July 31 - Daily Mail - QPR's new stars may sit it out
New signings Simon Walton and Lee Camp may be banned from starting the season with QPR.
The Football League are refusing to allow Rangers to register new players until they repay a £500,000 loan from Oldham chairman Simon Blitz - there is understood to be £300,000 left.
Rangers announced the signings of Walton from Charlton for £200,000 and Camp from Derby for £300,000 last week.
But the transfers are yet to be ratified by the League who will block any move to play them in the Championship. Daily Mail

August 2? The Paddington Mercury (according to a Messageboard report) that QPR Chairman Gianni Paladini told the paper: “If the deal doesn’t happen by the end of the month the club will go bust. I’ve been like magician Paul Daniels to this club but I can’t do it anymore, I haven’t got any more money to put in. I’m prepared not to take a penny for my shared if it means the club will move forward but we need to get new investors in. I’m crossing my fingers and toes everything really. “This deal if it goes through will be the best thing to happen to QPR in a long time,. I know the people involved but there is still a lot of negotiating to do, I’d be surprised if anything happened by the end of the week.”
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August 3, 2007 Mail - Rangers quartet banned until Oldham loan is repaid
Lord Mawhinney today warned Queens Park Rangers to repay their outstanding debt to Oldham chairman Simon Blitz or start the season without four of their new signings.
The Football League chairman says a transfer embargo applied to Rangers over the £500,000 loan means July recruits Simon Walton, Lee Camp, Michael Mancienne and Ben Sahar are not registered to play for the club.
QPR chairman Gianni Paladini borrowed the cash from Blitz earlier in the year without realising that the deal broke a league rule which forbids directors from investing in more than one club.
When details of the loan emerged in May, QPR promised to repay the money but three months later part of the debt - understood to be around £300,000 - has still not been repaid. At their latest meeting two weeks' ago, the League's board imposed a transfer embargo on QPR and held back around £1million in funding.
But the embargo did not stop QPR announcing a £200,000 deal for Walton from Charlton and a £300,000 move for Camp from Derby last week. The club also confirmed the loan signings of Mancienne and Sahar from Chelsea.
Although they have appeared in pre-season friendlies, Mawhinney confirmed that none of the quartet will be eligible for Championship matches until the loan is repaid.
QPR's first game is at Bristol City a week tomorrow. Mawhinney said: "There is a financial issue relating to QPR which needs to be resolved. Therefore, we have said that restrictions will be applied to the club's transactions.
"As soon as the financial issue has been resolved it will be back to normal. I understand promises have been made. I assume it will be resolved very soon but we've been waiting for quite a long time."
Paladini has insisted Blitz's money will be repaid this week. He also revealed today QPR have an agreement with Chelsea to sign three young players every year on loan.
He added: "They don't tell us which players. It's the ones manager John Gregory wants." Daily Mail

AUGUST 3 - QPR Official Site - NO EMBARGO
QPR would like to assure its fans that there is no embargo on the registration of the Club's new signings.
The Club have satisfied the Football League with regard to the Blitz loan.
All of John Gregory's new signings will be able to play for the Club against Bristol City on the opening day of the new Championship campaign.
"I was very disappointed with the nature of some of the articles that appeared in the press today,'' Chairman Gianni Paladini told www.qpr.co.uk.
"However, I would like to take this opportunity to reassure our fans that everything is in order ahead of the new season.'' QPR

See Also: PREVIOUS STATEMENTS RE BLITZ LOAN and Aftermath

All material (and links) are at QPR Report