Hopefully QPR’s owners don’t care about the club

If you ask QPR fans for their opinion of Flavio Briatore and his tenure as owner of our club I think that it is safe to say the response would be full of, at least, a few expletives. During his ownership (well co-ownership to be specific) we went through about 726 managers, both Football League and Football Association investigations, demonstrations and us fans were deemed basically pointless and ungrateful by the powers that be. My beloved QPR went from everyones favourite second team and a fantastic “old school” away day, to being both detested and ridiculed in equal measure by both other fans and the national media. However, the big “however” I must stress, despite their methods we completely destroyed the Championship eventually under Neil Warnock’s guidance, playing some utterly fantastic football whilst spending jack diddly squat. They had a plan and it was a plan that, eventually, worked.

Enter Tony Fernandes and his consortium. Our new Malaysian owners purchased a West London Premier League football team with a relatively minuscule amount of debt. The debt being a £10 million mortgage on Loftus Road that was acquired way before Flavio et al took over. Today we are playing God awful dire football under Harry Redknapp, fighting for the play-off spots in the Championship and are more than £177million in debt. I say more than as the recent accounts are for our last Premier League season. Doing some basic maths we, as of today, are circa £220 million in debt. Nearly a quarter of a billion.

So a debt free entertaining Premiership club ends up going backwards beyond belief with accounts that would make any CEO debate jumping out of the highest window he can find. A debt so large that the club are looking at being hit with a season long transfer embargo or an extra £48 million fine depending on what league we are playing in next season. The fans are surely demonstrating, calling for blood and going batshit mental. Alas, no. It seems many of my fellow fans have been so suckered in by “Uncle Tony” (something he actually calls himself somewhat sickeningly) and his PR that they have managed to sleepwalk into this situation. I personally started getting worried after our non footballing CEO was caught out at a fans’ forum lying (broadcast live on the official website no less) through his teeth to fans’ representatives. A situation which disgusted the Official Supporters Club so much that they resigned en-mass. We actually still have no Official Supporters Club since that incident. The majority of fans never battered an eye lid, they were so hoping that they could “trust” our new found saviour. Specifically, due to the distrust we rightly had with regards to the previous regime.

Scapegoats have been constantly found from players to Mark Hughes to agents to, quite ridiculously in fairness to them, the previous owners. Many people have taken Fernandes’ tweets (he loves to tweet whilst drunk it seems, either that or he failed English at school) that he is learning and that all will be alright as something to cling onto. Until now. As a proportion of the QPR fanbase wake up to the facts of the situation, there has actually been more and more reports of punch ups in the stands between fellow QPR fans. Something that was unheard of during our promotion winning season. There are calls to back the board, there are calls to back `Arry, there are those that recognise the peril we are now in and there are those that have just had enough of watching dire football.

QPR are not a big club and we know that. QPR are not going to win the Premier League and we know that. We are a working class historic football club whose genuine fans come from working class backgrounds. All we expect is to be entertained a bit and to watch players that would run through brick walls for the shirt. We are not getting entertained and the team is completely unrecognisable from the “them and us” never say die attitude and joint team/fan spirit that existed under Neil Warnock. Under Tony “Uncle” Fernandes and his useless CEO Phil Beard that has all been destroyed.

Part of me hopes the truth behind all of this complete and utter ineptitude is that the board doesn’t actually care about the football club and that we are just a vehicle for the new stadium, housing and retail development under review up the road from Loftus Road. The football club is just a means to an end of building the “Air Asia Stadium” and all the lucrative contracts that come with the associated area and construction projects. Losing a few hundred million quid is “whatever” if they secure their goal of owning that development – and profiting billions from it no doubt. I hope that they do not care about us and have as much interest in the paying fans as Flavio Briatore did.

The opposite is even more scary. If they do care, if this is how they try to run a professional football club, if this is them giving 100% to Queens Park Rangers FC, our history, our fans – then that is beyond scary. I remember a fight kicking off outside Hammersmith Palais back in the day after we played Manchester United (up yours Cantona for that late goal!) and one local youth took on a bunch of drunk Mancs who had tried to disrespect his girlfriend in some way. He could clearly handle himself and I remember him shouting at them as they ran away “Bush Boys, don’t test ya know!”. That’s something our owners should pay heed to; don’t mess with our football club – you will regret it.

By Scott Jones – QPR fan – @ScottJonesy

Posted by Natter Football

  1. What a load of shite. If TF walks, we’re doomed. Then what?

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  2. Finally, someone who realises the mess we’re in. Other fans will start to see it once we fail in the play-offs and our dire financial situation is made clearer. We could be the next Portsmouth or Luton and I’m seriously concerned we will be.

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  3. You still in your polish bolthole you knob?

    I heard your claiming to be a “journalist” these days…

    It’s not much better than your penalty kicks….

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  4. Well done of getting the least credible QPR supporter online you could possibly find to write an article. Here you can find the general view on Mr Jones from other QPR fans – http://www.wearetherangersboys.com/forum/showthread.php?178247-Hopefully-QPR%92s-owners-don%92t-care-about-the-club-Scott-Jones-no-free-tickets!

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  5. This the same Tony that runs a very successful air line business and has a personal wealth of 400m? And you are??

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  6. Scott is absolutely spot on. Great piece and his concerns are understandable. If ‘Uncle Tony’ leaves we’re in the shit because of his stupidity. It’s a very risky game they’re playing and one us fans might be left to deal with if he were to leave for whatever reason.

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  7. Journalist? Badly written, misinformed tosh. Everything this bloke touches is complete shite, he is an absolute cockjuggling thundercunt.

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  8. Not a QPR fan but this seems like a wise article to me. Fernandes seems like a good guy but how much money is going to be pumped into the club? Where does it all stop? Clubs are risking their futures with crazy amounts of money being thrown at them. If it fails who’s to say Fernandes and his gang won’t get sick of a lack of return in investment and leave? QPR aren’t being run the correct way and sadly they aren’t the only ones. Money in football is becoming utterly ridiculous and clubs are becoming a hobby for the rich.

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  9. i also worry about the amount of debt we have acumalated over the years and i will always rejoice that tony invested in our QPR . its very easy to critisie the mistakes of getting rid of warnock who i have the upmost respect for and the oppersite for the hughes regime . i would have prefered matteo to harry but letting mcclaren go and letting hughes and harry buy every midfield player thats availble and not buy a quality FIT goalscorer i donot understand.
    also we dont score goals and now we are conceeding them why are players that are under contract to us, do not play for us. include remys goals we would be top. its about time that all the players we sign PLAY FOR QPR like the warnock team did, loans or transfers we demand 100/00 every game.
    Harry less tv, papers, advice on other teams,player etc, book shows and more input into qpr might help!!

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  10. I assume you wrote this for a reaction or some sort of attention seeking… The current debt is well known due to it being in the public domain and your assumption on the debt taken on board by TF and co is from where?

    Did you take part in the negotiations?

    Your well known affiliation with Gianna Paladini tends me to wonder if your figures are from that direction regarding the takeover….

    However since his leaving the club “by mutual consent” after the farce of the Faurlin affair that very nearly cost the club promotion in 2011 because “he wasn’t a fine details person” would worry me if you took his figures as gospel…

    His part in the removal of Sheila Marsden and Olly from the club does him no favours in my eyes which happened on “his watch”…

    Finally the extremely personal attacks in your “article” against Tony Fernandes are totally unwarranted IMO and have little bearing regarding the club’s current finances

    You call yourself a “fan”, I can think of a word for you sir and it begins with a C….

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    1. Sheila and Gianni were and are very good friends. Don’t let facts get in the way though.

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  11. Great read and spot on imho.

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  12. Just read your twitter account!

    Jones…. you are seriously deluded if you think TF would have a meeting with you!!!!!!

    “or have the balls to talk to me” as you put it…

    WHY WOULD HE WANT TO TALK TO YOU?

    perhaps you should send in your CV for TF to make you the next QPR CEO as I read your heading back to blighty soon….

    You being deported or has the missus given you the sack?

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  13. This would be the same Fernandes who Did me in Twitter with regards to what messageboards he should read? I recommended, loftforwords, watrb and qpr report to him.

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