A Look at Ambitious QPR Under Their New Owners

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The Sunday Times/Brian Doogan - August 3, 2008 - QPR push for promotion
Money is no object for QPR but they will not follow Chelsea’s example

Even as Lewis Hamilton was setting the fastest time in the final practice session at the Hungaroring on Friday ahead of today’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Flavio Briatore, the Renault Formula One team owner, was talking business with Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon. “A very good friend of mine,” Briatore said matter-of-factly inside the Renault motorhome. A powerful ally, too, because Queens Park Rangers, the west London club that Briatore part-owns with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Britain and the fourth wealthiest in the world, have established a working relationship with Real that will see some of the Spanish club’s talented youngsters playing at Loftus Road on loan.

Dani Parejo, a 19-year-old striker and Spanish youth international who scored Real’s winner against Hamburg yesterday, has attracted interest from Arsenal and Barcelona and could be the first to move to Shepherd’s Bush under this agreement. “Real Madrid believe he is important for the future and they trust QPR to take him for one year or two years to assist in his development and, of course, it will be good for QPR and good for the Championship,” Briatore explained.

“For me, it is very important to deal with people you trust. I had lunch with Parejo and Ramon Calderon two months ago in Madrid and we reached an agreement. Parejo is excited and we hope to finalise the deal on Monday. It will be fantastic for QPR and for the Championship. It will make things even more interesting.”

Life at Loftus Road has been far more interesting since Briatore and Ecclestone bought the club for £1m last year. They wiped off debts of £13m and, once joined by London-based Indian steel magnate Mittal, their combined wealth of more than £30 billion, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, elevated QPR to the status of “richest club in the world” - a long way from bottom of the Championship, where the club was languishing before their takeover. They are close friends but have no prior background in football. Mittal plays badminton, enjoys cycling and cross-country skiing and is a keen sports fan. Ecclestone once said that “if there was a football match with the best players in the world taking place in my back garden, I probably wouldn’t even open the door to have a look”. Only Briatore has played the game, albeit almost 50 years ago at school in Cuneo in northern Italy. “I played on the right wing, I played a lot and I played very badly,” he recalled. “In order to uphold the honour of Italian football, I have not played very much since.”

Their business acumen, however, is doubted by nobody. New revenue streams have been established with a £20m, five-year kit deal with Lotto, the Italian sports-wear manufacturer, and a £7m, three-year sponsorship agreement with Gulf Air. Abbey, the high street bank, became an official financial partner. When asked about the possibility of moving to a new stadium with a greater crowd capacity than the current 19,100, Briatore emphasised their pragmatic approach. “First, let us fill Loftus Road,” he said. “If you have a small restaurant, you try and make sure all the tables are busy before you move to the next restaurant.”

Their ambition is to transform QPR into a Premier League club inside three years and then to strive for the Champions League. “Our vision for QPR is not to be a middle-of-the-road Premier League club,” said Amit Bhatia, the vice-chairman who is the Mittal family’s representative in the boardroom, working closely with club chairman Gianni Paladini and Briatore in the day-to-day running of affairs. “We want to be competitive and we want to strive to be a Champions League club but that’s an aspiration for a long way down the road. The way to be successful is to set achievable targets which give us enough time to get there, because our commitment to the club is long-term. We have no pressure to be promoted immediately. We want it, of course, but let’s spend time and effort to build this thing the right way.”

Their business model is their own. “Chelsea have done a great job under Roman Abramovich but everybody has their own style,” Briatore said. “When I was in charge at Benetton we made T-shirts and went from this to winning the world championship when nobody gave us a chance against Ferrari and McLaren, the big teams. Here I talk all the time to the manager of the team, Iain Dowie. He is an integral part of the structure we have in place, like the engineer and the driver working together in F1. So I speak to the players before we bring them to the club because personality is fundamental and I want everything to be correct. I want them to stay here forever, so we must be compatible. Their goals must be my goals and the manager’s goals. This is not about ego for me or Bernie or Lakshmi. We did not buy the club to be famous. We are famous already. Look, I have seen so many coaches make poor a lot of rich people, turning big fortunes into small fortunes very quickly, so we want to manage the club our way.”

The recruitment of players has been much more understated. Samuel Di Carmine, Emmanuel Jorge Ledesma and Matteo Alberti were all spotted by Dowie during a recent under21 tournament in Italy and Briatore’s contacts did the rest, Di Carmine and Ledesma arriving on loan from Fiorentina and Genoa respectively and Alberti signed from Chievo Verona for an undisclosed fee.

The owners have yet to splash the cash in a big way. More indicative of the way in 30
Combined wealth, in billions of pounds, of QPR’s three principal investors - Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal -according to the Sunday Times 2008 Rich List which they are doing business are the free transfers of defender Peter Ramage from Newcastle and goalkeeper Radek Cerny from Slavia Prague via Tottenham. The turnover of players has been high, with the likes of Hungarian midfielder Akos Buz-saky, Latvian full-back Kaspars Gorkss, 27-year-old defender Fitz Hall, midfielder Gavin Mahon and strikers Rowan Vine and Patrick Agyemang replacing players who have departed with little or no transfer fee.

Ledesma was impressive yesterday on his home debut against Chievo. He showed good crossing ability and was more productive than his teammates in midfield. Overall the service to strikers Dexter Blackstock and Agyemang was too sporadic and errors at the back let the Italians claim a 2-1 victory, with substitute Alberti winning a penalty and Blackstock converting from the spot. At times QPR passed the ball well and the manager is happy with his team’s preparations before their opening match against Barnsley.

“You have to work on the underbelly of the club and bringing in young lads like Di Carmine will be great for our future,” said Dowie. “We want to be an aggressive, enthusiastic side playing high-tempo football and passing the ball. The lads have embraced the work ethic. That’s the desire we want here. Sometimes I speak to Flavio two or three times a day, so communication is not a problem. Trying to hear him over the roar of engines is the hard part.”

When even Ramon Calderon is hearing this sound, the ambitions of QPR and their powerful owners are plainly self-evident.

A crazy year in the life of Queens Park Rangers
August 2007 Teenage striker Ray Jones is killed in a car crash
September 2007 The club is bought by convicted fraudster-turned fashion retail entrepreneur-turned F1 team boss Flavio Briatore and motor racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone
October 2007 Manager John Gregory is sacked, with the club bottom of the Championship. Italian Luigi De Canio is appointed
December 2007 Lakshmi Mittal, one of the world’s richest men, takes a 20% stake and instals his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, left, to oversee his investment
January 2008 The battle of West London plutocrats sees QPR go to Chelsea in the third round of the FA Cup. They lose 1-0 as fans wave banners declaring their club the richest in the world
February 2008 Briatore becomes chairman of QPR Holdings. Speculation about a move to a new stadium from Loftus Road and a flurry of new sponsors ensues
May 2008 QPR finish the Championship in 14th place. De Canio steps down to be replaced by Iain Dowie, despite claims that Zinedine Zidane would take up the post. New rumours link billionaire Vijay Mallya with an investment in the club
August 2008 QPR enter the new season with the owners committed to renovating Loftus Road and pushing for promotion in 2009 The Times