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QPR 37 37
Bolton 37 35
Bolton 37 35
The Sun - Cops probe Prem star’s film bust-up
QPR's Cisse in fan clash
Police probe ... QPR's Djibril Cisse
By ANTHONY FRANCE and CHRIS POLLARD
Published: Today at 00:13
SOCCER star Djibril Cisse faces a police probe after a fan was attacked by a gang outside a cinema.
The QPR striker got in a row with Geoffrey Candia, who approached him at the box office asking for a picture.
When Geoffrey, 20, and three pals began shouting the ace’s name, Cisse asked them to quieten down because he was taking his wife Jude to see American Pie: Reunion.
An hour into the film, a burly stranger demanded that Geoffrey leave the Vue Cinema in Park Royal, West London. He said: “Outside we were surrounded by about eight men. They had been waiting in cars.
“They started shouting, saying they were going to break our legs and kill us.”
Geoffrey claimed one thug kicked him hard in the leg before they fled.
Film trip ... Djibril Cisse's wife Jude
Police are viewing CCTV footage of the alleged incident before deciding whether to speak to French international Cisse, 30.
Geoffrey, of Harrow, North West London, said when he first spotted father-of-three Cisse he wasn’t sure it was him so he shouted his name.
He added: “He turned around furiously and said, ‘Why are you having a go at me?’
“I said I wasn’t. I just wanted a picture. He said he just wanted a quiet night.”
Last night Cisse’s spokesman said: “There were four guys who started being abusive at the entrance. They were shouting ‘Cisse’.
“He went in and watched the film and they came to apologise. The guys had been a bit lairy. There was no altercation.” The Sun
QPR's Cisse in fan clash
Police probe ... QPR's Djibril Cisse
By ANTHONY FRANCE and CHRIS POLLARD
Published: Today at 00:13
SOCCER star Djibril Cisse faces a police probe after a fan was attacked by a gang outside a cinema.
The QPR striker got in a row with Geoffrey Candia, who approached him at the box office asking for a picture.
When Geoffrey, 20, and three pals began shouting the ace’s name, Cisse asked them to quieten down because he was taking his wife Jude to see American Pie: Reunion.
An hour into the film, a burly stranger demanded that Geoffrey leave the Vue Cinema in Park Royal, West London. He said: “Outside we were surrounded by about eight men. They had been waiting in cars.
“They started shouting, saying they were going to break our legs and kill us.”
Geoffrey claimed one thug kicked him hard in the leg before they fled.
Film trip ... Djibril Cisse's wife Jude
Police are viewing CCTV footage of the alleged incident before deciding whether to speak to French international Cisse, 30.
Geoffrey, of Harrow, North West London, said when he first spotted father-of-three Cisse he wasn’t sure it was him so he shouted his name.
He added: “He turned around furiously and said, ‘Why are you having a go at me?’
“I said I wasn’t. I just wanted a picture. He said he just wanted a quiet night.”
Last night Cisse’s spokesman said: “There were four guys who started being abusive at the entrance. They were shouting ‘Cisse’.
“He went in and watched the film and they came to apologise. The guys had been a bit lairy. There was no altercation.” The Sun
Two Kinds of Owners - Boltons and QPR
Financial Times
May 11, 2012
Football teams struggle for survival
By Roger Blitz, Leisure Industries Correspondent
Lakshmi Mittal and Eddie Davies have never met. But on Sunday, they will be locked in a cut-throat struggle for Premier League survival that illustrates the changing face of English football.
One represents the growing ranks of foreign owners in the sport, the other is among the last of a dying breed of local men-made-good propping up their home town teams.
While much of the football world will be focused on whether Manchester City can secure its first league title in 44 years on Sunday, the battle against relegation between Mr Mittal’s Queen’s Park Rangers and Mr Davies’ Bolton Wanderers promises to be just as dramatic.
Mr Mittal, the Indian billionaire steel magnate, will be at the Etihad Stadium to see QPR, the London club he part-owns with Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, attempt to secure the draw they need against Manchester City to avoid relegation – and potentially deny City the title – after only one season in the top flight.
Meanwhile, Mr Davies, owner of Bolton Wanderers since 2003, will watch his team at the Britannia Stadium in its own bid to beat the drop. If QPR lose, a Bolton victory against Stoke City would preserve its Premier League status for the 12th consecutive season.
In doing so, Bolton would preserve Mr Davies’ place at football’s top table amid the Arab Sheiks, Russian oligarchs and American entrepreneurs who have increasingly come to dominate the English game.
Mr Davies, 65, played in goal for Bolton Boys Federation and watched Bolton Wanderers as a child. He made his fortune producing control systems for kettles and initially invested in the club to help finance a new stadium.
“If you rewind 10 or 20 years, you had a preponderance of owners with an affinity to the club,” he says. “There is an emotional linkage there. You do things that you wouldn’t do if you were completely dispassionate about the asset.”
Relegation would not diminish Mr Davies’ support for the club, he says, adding that contingency plans are in place should the worst happen.
It is little surprise that among callers wishing him and Bolton well on Sunday was Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan, another of the shrinking group of local businessmen propping up a community’s lossmaking football club.
Mr Mittal, in contrast, has been involved with QPR since 2007, when he invested with Formula One moguls Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone.
Their joint ownership was at times fractious, ending when Mr Fernandes, founder of Air Asia, bought out the Briatore-Ecclestone stakes last year.
[b]Not a hands-on owner, Mr Mittal delegates day-to-day management to his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia. But he is clear on the importance of staying in the Premier League. “It does matter,” he told the Financial Times on Friday. Asked if relegation to the second-tier Championship would make him rethink his ownership, Mr Mittal says he has “not thought about it” but admits it would be “a big disappointment”.
Mr Bhatia is more forthright. “We are committed to continuing to invest,” he says. The owners are thought to have invested up to £30m this season, mostly on transfers and player wages. Financial Times
