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Daily Mail - Sports Agenda: Briatore and his racy QPR suitors
The 'bunch of friends' with whom Formula One boss Flavio Briatore is exploring the possibilities of buying Championship club Queens Park Rangers should be of some concern to the Football League.
Briatore, who confirmed his currently informal interest in QPR yesterday before the Turkish Grand Prix, has some controversial associates involved with him in the project.
These include former Juventus chief executive Antonio Giraudo, banned from football in Italy for five years following the match-fixing scandal with the recommendation from Italian football's governing body that it should be a lifetime penalty.
Other members of the Briatore consortium are father and son team of Arrigo and Giuseppe Cipriani, who own a chain of restaurants in Europe and the US, including the London Mayfair flagship in which Briatore is an investor.
Briatore and his racy QPR suitors
The two restaurateurs pleaded guilty last month in Manhattan Supreme Court to evading 10 million dollars of New York taxes after submitting fraudulent tax returns in 2003 and 2004.
Briatore compared his passive investment in the Ciprianis' London restaurant to what would be his behind-the-scenes style at QPR.
He said: 'I occasionally go there to eat, but I don't go in the kitchen to cook the food. And with QPR, I will occasionally go to a match. Nothing more.'
A Football League spokesman said: 'Any new directors will have to comply with our fit-andproper person regulations.' Mail
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