Political Economy of Football
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No Immediate Bonanza For Super Hoops

13/01/2008



Although the club has been active in the transfer market, there will no be no immediate bonanza for Queen's Park Rangers fans from the involvement of Britain's richest resident Lakshi Mittal. He is worth an estimated £19.25bn, but he spent only £200,000 on acquiring his 20 per cent stake in the club. He seems to have made the investment to please his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, who is keen on fooball and will take a seat on the QPR board. The new owners have so far made no attempt to pay off a £10m loan to the ABC Corporation which carries a punitive £1m annual interest charge, a massive burden on a club with a turnover in the £10m-£15m a year range. Another £2m is owed to former director and major shareholder Antonio Caliendo. Despite talk of a property plan which would see the new owners sell Loftus Road for redevelopment and move to a new ground, perhaps on a BBC-owned site at White City, there appear to be no immediate plans. The strategy appears to be build the club up slowly ahead of funding a major push for the Premiership next season. As yet, QPR does not rival another West London team, Chelsea, as a benefactor club.


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