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Flavio Briatore was the loneliest man in football last night as fans, lawyers and politicians called for him to be thrown out of his club and the game.
Even though Briatore was believed to be preparing to hit back with his own legal defence against the damning accusations of cheating in Formula One, there were few signs of support for the owner of Queens Park Rangers, who could find himself treated as a pariah in football.
But the ramifications of Briatore’s case set a massive test for football’s legislators, who will be treading on virgin territory as they decide what to do with the maverick millionaire who brought his Formula One champagne swagger and riches to the modest stands of Loftus Road in the CocaCola Championship.
Lawyers believe that Briatore fails by some distance the Football League’s fit and proper persons test after being banned indefinitely from Formula One. Briatore, the former managing director of the Renault team, was accused of being one of the perpetrators of a plan to have Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crash his car in last year’s Singapore Grand Prix so that their lead driver, Fernando Alonso, could go on to win.
The Football League’s test is explicit: no director or owner of a club can be “the subject of a ban from a sports governing body relating to the administration of that sport”. The Football League, though, will be forced to examine every potential legal loophole before acting, which rules out any quick decisions. Lord Mawhinney, the chairman, is waiting for delivery of the official findings by the FIA, the Formula One governing body, before instructing his lawyers to carry out an investigation that could take months.
But with Briatore’s credibility in tatters, few in football believe that he can carry on at QPR, legally or morally, while the pressure builds on football’s regulators not to allow the game to fall into weeks of uncertainty.
Hugh Robertson, the Conservative Shadow Sports Minister, called for the Football League to remove Briatore and, if he refuses to go, consider giving him a deadline in which to sell his stake in QPR or impose sanctions on the club.
“Of course Mr Briatore is not fit to run a football club,” he said. “It is difficult to see how anyone convicted of one of the worst cases of cheating on record in one sport could possibly be considered fit and proper in another.”
Briatore, 59, is reported to be considering legal action against the FIA to clear his name, saying he was “distraught” that his reputation had been so damaged. But Kuldip Singh, QC, one of Britain’s leading sports lawyers, believes that Briatore’s case was fatally wounded when he failed to show up at the FIA court hearing on Monday in Paris to defend himself.
“Whether he sues in Paris or in an English court, he is going to have to give an explanation for why he did not defend himself,” he said. “He would seem likely to fail there. If he was to argue in some way that the prosecution falls short of legal requirements, I think he will be skating on thin ice when it comes to the fit and proper persons test.”
As the Football League prepares for one of the sternest tests of its authority, QPR fans started to fear that the Devil they have known for the past two years might be better than the financial unknown. More than 6,000 fans will watch their team play Chelsea in the Carling Cup third round at Stamford Bridge tonight with a question on their lips: if Briatore is forced out, what happens to their club?
“The fans are always the people who suffer,” Paul Finney, co-founder of the Independent R’s fan website, said. “We have never been sure how committed Briatore was to the club. Was it business, for football or just a plaything? If he walks away, will he care if the club is simply liquidated? Probably not.
“He has done some good things and plenty of bad things, but from the fans’ point of view, we have to know what is going to happen to the club. The most important thing for the Football League to make sure of is that QPR survives.” With Briatore’s track record, his tenure in football always promised to be colourful. After acquiring QPR two years ago for £25 million, in alliance with Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder and one of his best friends, he alienated fans with higher ticket prices .
The new “boutique” image — with a directors’ box that featured Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, among others — did not sit well with the fans and the revolving door at the entrance had managers spinning through it with frightening regularity.
Luigi De Canio lasted 35 matches and Iain Dowie only 15 as he walked out claiming that Briatore was picking the team. They were just two of the casualties.
Ecclestone watched the comings and goings with a wry smile but he was being seen last night as the man who could broker a way out for his old chum. Ecclestone had brought Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s fifth richest man, into QPR as a shareholder, and fans hope that the Indian steel magnate will buy Briatore’s 54 per cent stake.
That would open the door for the flamboyant Italian to walk out of Loftus Road, a final exit for one of sport’s greatest showmen — and one of its greatest cheats.
Even though Briatore was believed to be preparing to hit back with his own legal defence against the damning accusations of cheating in Formula One, there were few signs of support for the owner of Queens Park Rangers, who could find himself treated as a pariah in football.
But the ramifications of Briatore’s case set a massive test for football’s legislators, who will be treading on virgin territory as they decide what to do with the maverick millionaire who brought his Formula One champagne swagger and riches to the modest stands of Loftus Road in the CocaCola Championship.
Lawyers believe that Briatore fails by some distance the Football League’s fit and proper persons test after being banned indefinitely from Formula One. Briatore, the former managing director of the Renault team, was accused of being one of the perpetrators of a plan to have Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crash his car in last year’s Singapore Grand Prix so that their lead driver, Fernando Alonso, could go on to win.
The Football League’s test is explicit: no director or owner of a club can be “the subject of a ban from a sports governing body relating to the administration of that sport”. The Football League, though, will be forced to examine every potential legal loophole before acting, which rules out any quick decisions. Lord Mawhinney, the chairman, is waiting for delivery of the official findings by the FIA, the Formula One governing body, before instructing his lawyers to carry out an investigation that could take months.
But with Briatore’s credibility in tatters, few in football believe that he can carry on at QPR, legally or morally, while the pressure builds on football’s regulators not to allow the game to fall into weeks of uncertainty.
Hugh Robertson, the Conservative Shadow Sports Minister, called for the Football League to remove Briatore and, if he refuses to go, consider giving him a deadline in which to sell his stake in QPR or impose sanctions on the club.
“Of course Mr Briatore is not fit to run a football club,” he said. “It is difficult to see how anyone convicted of one of the worst cases of cheating on record in one sport could possibly be considered fit and proper in another.”
Briatore, 59, is reported to be considering legal action against the FIA to clear his name, saying he was “distraught” that his reputation had been so damaged. But Kuldip Singh, QC, one of Britain’s leading sports lawyers, believes that Briatore’s case was fatally wounded when he failed to show up at the FIA court hearing on Monday in Paris to defend himself.
“Whether he sues in Paris or in an English court, he is going to have to give an explanation for why he did not defend himself,” he said. “He would seem likely to fail there. If he was to argue in some way that the prosecution falls short of legal requirements, I think he will be skating on thin ice when it comes to the fit and proper persons test.”
As the Football League prepares for one of the sternest tests of its authority, QPR fans started to fear that the Devil they have known for the past two years might be better than the financial unknown. More than 6,000 fans will watch their team play Chelsea in the Carling Cup third round at Stamford Bridge tonight with a question on their lips: if Briatore is forced out, what happens to their club?
“The fans are always the people who suffer,” Paul Finney, co-founder of the Independent R’s fan website, said. “We have never been sure how committed Briatore was to the club. Was it business, for football or just a plaything? If he walks away, will he care if the club is simply liquidated? Probably not.
“He has done some good things and plenty of bad things, but from the fans’ point of view, we have to know what is going to happen to the club. The most important thing for the Football League to make sure of is that QPR survives.” With Briatore’s track record, his tenure in football always promised to be colourful. After acquiring QPR two years ago for £25 million, in alliance with Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder and one of his best friends, he alienated fans with higher ticket prices .
The new “boutique” image — with a directors’ box that featured Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, among others — did not sit well with the fans and the revolving door at the entrance had managers spinning through it with frightening regularity.
Luigi De Canio lasted 35 matches and Iain Dowie only 15 as he walked out claiming that Briatore was picking the team. They were just two of the casualties.
Ecclestone watched the comings and goings with a wry smile but he was being seen last night as the man who could broker a way out for his old chum. Ecclestone had brought Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s fifth richest man, into QPR as a shareholder, and fans hope that the Indian steel magnate will buy Briatore’s 54 per cent stake.
That would open the door for the flamboyant Italian to walk out of Loftus Road, a final exit for one of sport’s greatest showmen — and one of its greatest cheats.