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
