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It's an unusual state of affairs when armed police are called to a football ground after a confrontation between a group of men and a director who he said forced him to sign a resignation letter. But that is what is said to have happened to QPR director Gianni Paladini at Loftus Road. Last Monday, QPR direcror David Morris and three other men were charged with conspiracy to commit blackmail and joint possession of a firearm with intent to commit grievous bodily harm. That aside, QPR faces serious problems about continuing losses. The club has lost about £35m since 1997. The problems originated in the 1990s from miscalculations about the value of the club in the wake of increasing television revenues. In 1996 media tycoon Chris Wright bought the club for £10m, merged it with rugby club Wasps and floated it on AIM. However, QPR fell from the Premiership to the second division. In April 2001 the club went into administration after Wright stopped subsidising its losses. The club emerged from administration in May 2002 after borrowing £10m from Bahamas-based ABC Corporation to pay off its creditors, but continued to lose money. Last year the group who had nursed QPR through administration stepped down and Paladini invested £577,000 in the club and installed his wife, Olga, on the board. He then attracted £1.6m in new money from Italian investors in two Monaco-based consortiums. This spring four new directors were nominated to the board including Morris. It is believed that Paladini and his associates hold about 44 per cent of the shares and another group including Morris hold about 30 per cent. Thus, the two groups each hold a large enough stake to block the other. All in all, not a happy situation for the Super Hoops who still have aspirations to return to the Premiership.
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