QPR report substantially reduced losses

QPR have reported substantially reduced losses for the last financial year.   They are down to £9.8m in contrast to a massive £65.4m in the year ending May 2013.  Expenditure is down £22m, largely due to lower player costs.   Shareholders have also written off £60m in loans.

The club has faced difficulties over compliance with financial fair play rules, but these results should help their position.  

QPR have reported substantially reduced losses for the last financial year.   They are down to £9.8m in contrast to a massive £65.4m in the year ending May 2013.  Expenditure is down £22m, largely due to lower player costs.   Shareholders have also written off £60m in loans.

The club has faced difficulties over compliance with financial fair play rules, but these results should help their position.  

If the figures announced today are accepted by the Football League, it would mean a small fine, rather
than the huge one that had been anticipated if losses were comparable to those of 12 months ago.   This might then have led to legal action by the club which could have placed the financial fair play rules in question.

Early indications, however, are that the Football League is reluctant to accept what they see as drastically adjusted figures.   The £60m written off in loans have brought losses down from an anticipated £70m.   This would have led to a fine under FFP rules of £50m.

The Football League knows that it will look weak if the regulations can be so easily sidestepped.  From their perspective, it would send out the wrong message to other clubs.   QPR’s creative accounting would not be permitted under other versions of FFP such as Uefa’s in which ‘relevant income’ must be justified.

However, the Football League also knows that the rules were badly drafted and are therefore open to legal challenge.  QPR is likely to fight any substantial fine and such a court case would help to clarify just what is permissible under FFP rules (probably less than the football authorities would like).  

The Football League would only have real leverage over QPR if they were relegated, in which case it could deny them entry into its competition, a decision that could also be challenged in the courts.  It looks as if the real winners might be sport and competition lawyers.