The Football League "Decision" on Briatore - Reactions and Assessments "QPR Sources... Are Surprised..." QPR Football Snippets

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- Marking Six-Months Since QPR "Terminated" Paulo Sousa - "Queens Park Rangers Football Club has today (Thursday) had to terminate Paulo De Sousa's employment with the Club with immediate effect. It came to the Club's attention that Mr De Sousa had, without authority, divulged highly confidential and sensitive information. The Club, with legal advice, responded in this way to protect its position" - The Reactions


Paul Warburton/London Informer - Warbo's word: QPR fans have short memories
- SCANNING QPR messageboards over the last three weeks, I was beginning to think the club's chairmanship had been handed to a Mr O Bin-Laden.
- It was only closer inspection that showed a now 'morally bankruped' (sic) club was still presided over by the bloke being discussed by the Football League committee right now.
- Flavio Briatore's fate on whether he is a 'fit and proper person' to be a director of QPR should be known pretty soon.
- And if they give the Italian the thumbs down after the events of
- 'Crashgate' - and forgive me if I don't go through this for the third week running - it looks as if we'll get a new Rangers supremo.
- But, according to fans who peck away day-and-night on the web, it's come to a pretty pass when someone like Briatore doesn't fall on his QPR sword as a result of the fallout from the Renault scandal. I would remind said fans two years ago they would have welcomed Ronnie Biggs to the Rangers board had the old train robber salted away his ill-gotten gains.
- A club about to go under, and certainly into administration for the second time, was rescued by Briatore, who also lured in fellow Formula One pal Bernie Ecclestone - and, more significantly, billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. It will be the latter's further investment that keeps the club ticking towards a Premiership return should Flav forfeit.
- I'm not here to praise Briatore. I'm not here to bury him either - he seems to have done that well enough himself - but the son of Satan? Supporters ought to remind themselves that a skint League One club is closer to hell. London Informer


The Football League "Decision" on Briatore and QPR

- The Independent's Mark Flemming reported "...QPR sources however are surprised by the League's response. They believed Thursday's board meeting was going to deliver a definitive outcome one way or the other, and are surprised at the open-ended nature of the League's statement." Independent

- Matt Scott.The Guardian "...Briatore's ban for his part in the race-fixing at the Singapore grand prix last year would prohibit him from having a significant shareholding or directorial interest in a Football League club under the fit and proper person regulations. Currently he is a shareholder-director at Queens Park Rangers but any attempt to dislodge him from Loftus Road must be delayed until the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's appeals process has run its course." - The Guardian

Planet F1 -Briatore's football career on the line - Friday 9th October 2009
- Flavio Briatore's woes continue as the disgraced former Formula One team boss was given a brief stay of execution by the English football league.
- League chairman Brian Mawhinney met with the League's board on Thursday to discuss Briatore's future as the rules state that individuals cannot be a director or hold a majority interest in a club if they are banned by another sport's governing body.
- Therefore Briatore, who co-owns Queens Park Rangers with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, could be forced out of the sport after the FIA banned him for F1 for his role in Renault's race-fixing scandal.
- The Football League met for five hours to debate the matter with the Sun claiming they are 'determined to ensure Briatore is not allowed to remain in English football.'
- But after listening to legal advice, the board opted not to make a decision until they have given Briatore the chance to share his side of the story.
- Mawhinney said: "We recognise it is important in a case like this that a due process is seen to be done, so we will now see Mr Briatore's views on what happened. It's only right we hear from him before we go further" Planet F1


The Independent/Mark Fleming - League offers Briatore chance to make case
- Flavio Briatore has been given the chance to argue his case after the Football League delayed making a decision on whether the co-owner of Queen's Park Rangers has contravened its "fit and proper person" test.
- The League's eight-man board met yesterday to rule if Briatore's life ban from Formula One for instructing driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash rules him out of owning the West London club. They were expected to rule that Briatore's ban by the World Motor Sport Council means he fails to meet the League's criteria, which would have seen him disqualified from the QPR board.
- But after legal advice the board decided to seek clarification from Briatore before making a ruling. Lord Mawhinney, who chaired the meeting, wants to ensure the whole process is legally watertight.
- A spokesman for the Football League said: "The board conducted a comprehensive review, including the receipt of advice from leading counsel. The board will seek responses from Mr Briatore before commenting further."
- QPR sources however are surprised by the League's response. They believed Thursday's board meeting was going to deliver a definitive outcome one way or the other, and are surprised at the open-ended nature of the League's statement.
- Briatore took over QPR in November 2007 along with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. Briatore owns 34 per cent, while Mittal owns 20 per cent and Ecclestone 15 per cent.
- The League has also drawn up new rules to insist all clubs must clearly identify who their owners are. The decision follows confusion over the identities of those whose companies now own both Notts County and Leeds United." Independent


The Times/Patrick Barclay, Chief Football Commentator
- Football League should not delay in driving out Flavio Briatore
Those deciding whether people in the sport are ‘fit and proper’ must display the same qualities themselves
- Is football fit and proper to run its own affairs? The question arises as the Football League wrestles with a trio of ownership problems that, if the worst comes to the very worst, could cost it a founder member and two exceptionally well-endowed clubs, one in terms of support and the other, money.
- And the strange thing is that the League doesn’t seem too angry about it. Yesterday’s statement from the board was “very grateful” to Notts County, reticent about Leeds United and almost solicitous towards the Queens Park Rangers co-owner, Flavio Briatore, who was kicked out of Formula One last month for involvement in race-fixing.
- To deal with Briatore first: I know we live in a litigious age, but cannot see the point of tiptoeing around this fellow. If Formula One can ditch him, so can football. The only “response” sought from Briatore should be how long it will take to clear his desk. The FIA has told him that he can no longer be even a spectator and football should follow suit.
- Instead, “due process” is observed. The very phrase reeks of fear, of authority in retreat, the posture of most governing bodies over recent years. Even the new FA, under Lord Triesman, has started bending over backwards to please agents, allowing them to perform “dual representation” of club and player in transfers when every independent inquiry has deemed it unethical.
- The Football League, under Lord Mawhinney, has made progress on this front, insisting that clubs report all commissions paid to agents and publishing totals annually, and we had high hopes on the fit and proper persons front when Mawhinney proclaimed the “ground-breaking” innovation of a test for directors in 2004.
- Without mentioning the Premier League, he talked of “new standards of corporate governance in football” and praised chairmen for a “brave decision” that would prevent “the good work of the vast majority of club directors from being tarnished by a handful of rogue individuals”.
- Basically it banned those convicted of fraud or dishonesty, or rejects from other sports (in other words, people like Briatore), and a year later it was extended to people who had been sent to prison for 12 months or more, or placed on the sex offenders’ register.
- What it did not say is how the League would know. And thus we come to the situation at Notts County, where a bizarre and opaque takeover leaves the game looking helpless and incapable of policing itself.
- Surely the time to clear up “outstanding issues” is before a club are taken over, not after, when dark hints in the press appear to have jolted the League into action.
- It is amazing that League rules have never been changed to this effect. Poor Notts County; we must fear for them, for there are signs that the supply of sheikhs is running out and the quality of sub-prime Arabs deteriorating.,,
"...If the League is being scrupulous as a prelude to toughness on any transgressions, well and good; we shall see. It may also be asked what would happen if, in the event of an owner being barred, a club ran into difficulty. The fans would suffer, just as children suffer (I apologise for the disproportionately heart-rending analogy) when a parent goes to jail. But there is always an excuse for avoiding the right thing to do" The Times


The Guardian/Matt Scott - Football League plays a waiting game on ownership issues• Open verdict on Notts County, Leeds United and QPR
• Football League demands more information in each case
- Brian Mawhinney delivered an open verdict on what has been the biggest challenge yet to the Football League's fit and proper person test.
- The league chairman and his board considered the implications of the takeover at Notts County by an anonymous offshore trust, Flavio Briatore's indefinite ban from motor sport and the ever-obfuscatedownership of Leeds United.
- On all three points the league, following its first board meeting to consider how to react to those tests, declined to take action, announcing that it needs more information in every case. However it has taken steps to ensure that in future the ownership of clubs is declared to them.
- "As of today, and having taken advice from legal counsel in regard to existing league regulations, it was unanimously agreed that it will be the policy of the board to insist that it is informed, with supporting evidence provided, of the ultimate beneficial owners of all Football League clubs," said the league in a statement.
- The new owners at Meadow Lane must follow up on two days of meetings held with the league's senior executives this week "to clarify a few outstanding issues". Peter Trembling, Notts County's executive chairman, referred to the "unique" situation that has arisen at Notts, where the anonymous trust "comes from the Middle East", without explaining how the investors Qadbak has claimed are behind it have denied any involvement. "Quite rightly [the league] are protecting their members and the future of Notts County as well," he said.
- Briatore's ban for his part in the race-fixing at the Singapore grand prix last year would prohibit him from having a significant shareholding or directorial interest in a Football League club under the fit and proper person regulations. Currently he is a shareholder-director at Queens Park Rangers but any attempt to dislodge him from Loftus Road must be delayed until the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's appeals process has run its course.
- "The Board conducted a comprehensive review of the situation, including the receipt of advice from leading counsel," said the league in its statement. "After considering all the information presently available to it and in the interest of due process, the Board will seek responses from Mr Briatore before commenting further."
- Lord Mawhinney's board was understood previously to be reluctant to tackle the third issue on the agenda: Ken Bates's ownership or otherwise of Leeds. As revealed in the Guardian, the former Chelsea chairman has issued an affidavit to retract as "an error" his previous claim to a Jersey court that he owns the Elland Road club.
- Despite the confusion league directors had been willing to let the matter lie in the expectation that the 77-year-old will not remain in football for decades more. But Mawhinney persuaded the league board to enforce its rules. "The Board noted recent allegations made about the ownership of Leeds United," said the statement. "The League has written to the club seeking clarification. No further comment will be made on this matter until a response has been received." The Guardian


- FOOTBALL LEAGUE BOARD STATEMENT
- At its meeting in London today, the Board of The Football League discussed its Fit and Proper Persons Test and general club ownership.
- As of today, and having taken advice from legal counsel in regard to existing League regulations, it was unanimously agreed that it will be the policy of the Board to insist that it is informed, with supporting evidence provided, of the ultimate beneficial owners of all Football League clubs.
- In regard to specific issues discussed, a spokesman for The Football League said...Flavio Briatore:
- "The Board conducted a comprehensive review of the situation, including the receipt of advice from leading counsel.
- "After considering all the information presently available to it and in the interest of due process, the Board will seek responses from Mr. Briatore before commenting further..." - Football League Statement

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