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....Not my thoughts but those of Mirror columnist Ian Windwood.I wonder how many other neutrals or even fans feel the same?Mirror Columnist, Ian Winwood ... Mirror Columnist, Ian Winwood -" Why I no longer have a soft spot for Queens Park Rangers"...
- This coming Saturday I shall make my now annual schlep to Loftus Road, where I will pay £30 to sit in a stadium that looks as if it is made out of Mechano and Sellotape. Despite the inconvenience Queens Park Rangers have caused me during the years I have lived in London – and Barnsley haven’t won in this part of West London since well before the Beatles recorded their first album – it used to be that I always had a soft spot for the Super Hoops.
- Not any longer, and I’m sure you understand just why. It is very difficult to look at a club owned by Bernie “Hitler was alright, really” Ecclestone, steel magnate Lakshi Mittal and disgraced Formula 1 race fixer Flavio Briatore and not wonder what exactly has happened to one of the city’s most traditionally overlooked and quietly loveable clubs.
- As if the sight of rich men watching mediocre football inside a rubbish stadium weren’t disconcerting enough, the Football League have asked Formula 1’s governing body to supply them with details of Briatore’s indefinite suspension from the sport after the ex Renault team boss was found guilty in the recent F1 race-fixing scandal.
- The Football League has said that it will consider its position once the FIA (F1’s ruling body) has replied to its request.
- Personally, I can’t see why the league should wait even this long. The rules are quite clear: nobody can be a director of a football club or hold a majority interest in a club if they are banned from another sport by that sport’s governing body.
- Along with being a director of Queens Park Rangers, Flavio Briatore, 59, is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club.
- Could this be any more simple?
- It could, of course, be that the Football League will survey the evidence they receive and chuck the Italian out on his ear. Wouldn’t that be nice? Or this could merely be another example of the game’s authorities being scared to death of people with money and power and thus kicking this issue into the long grass.
- Me, I’m hoping it’s the former while suspecting it might be the latter.
- Either way, can anybody help with a word that rhymes with Briatore so I can get a chant going on Saturday? Mirror
- This coming Saturday I shall make my now annual schlep to Loftus Road, where I will pay £30 to sit in a stadium that looks as if it is made out of Mechano and Sellotape. Despite the inconvenience Queens Park Rangers have caused me during the years I have lived in London – and Barnsley haven’t won in this part of West London since well before the Beatles recorded their first album – it used to be that I always had a soft spot for the Super Hoops.
- Not any longer, and I’m sure you understand just why. It is very difficult to look at a club owned by Bernie “Hitler was alright, really” Ecclestone, steel magnate Lakshi Mittal and disgraced Formula 1 race fixer Flavio Briatore and not wonder what exactly has happened to one of the city’s most traditionally overlooked and quietly loveable clubs.
- As if the sight of rich men watching mediocre football inside a rubbish stadium weren’t disconcerting enough, the Football League have asked Formula 1’s governing body to supply them with details of Briatore’s indefinite suspension from the sport after the ex Renault team boss was found guilty in the recent F1 race-fixing scandal.
- The Football League has said that it will consider its position once the FIA (F1’s ruling body) has replied to its request.
- Personally, I can’t see why the league should wait even this long. The rules are quite clear: nobody can be a director of a football club or hold a majority interest in a club if they are banned from another sport by that sport’s governing body.
- Along with being a director of Queens Park Rangers, Flavio Briatore, 59, is also chairman of the holding company that owns the club.
- Could this be any more simple?
- It could, of course, be that the Football League will survey the evidence they receive and chuck the Italian out on his ear. Wouldn’t that be nice? Or this could merely be another example of the game’s authorities being scared to death of people with money and power and thus kicking this issue into the long grass.
- Me, I’m hoping it’s the former while suspecting it might be the latter.
- Either way, can anybody help with a word that rhymes with Briatore so I can get a chant going on Saturday? Mirror
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