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More positive PR courtesy of Briatore, but I guess there are some on here who still wont believe he done we he admitted he done.
Why this vile cheat must be Kicked out
Steve Howard in today's Sun, page 69
WE are always hearing what a hardline administrator Football League chairman Brian Mawhinney is.
Some sort of tough guy who brooks no argument.
Well, today he has a chance to show it when the Football League meet to discuss the footballing future of discredited motor-racing ty**** Flavio Briatore.
In his political career, Mawhinney was chairman of the Conservative Party in the last two years of the John Major government when hardly a week went by when one Tory MP or another was caught with his trousers metaphorically round his ankles.
He was also Minister of State at the Northern Ireland office.
So he knows about sleaze. And he knows about making tough decisions in tough areas.
This morning he chairs the meeting in Central London that will examine, among other things, whether former Renault F1 boss Briatore is a "fit and proper person" to continue as chairman of QPR Holdings and a director of the club.
This would seem to be a no-brainer. Should Guy Fawkes be allowed to use fireworks?
More appropriately, would you accept a lift to to the shops from Nelson Piquet Jnr? I don't think so.
Briatore has just been thrown out of his own sport for masterminding probably the worst case of cheating in sporting history.
What sort of man would coerce an impressionable 24-year-old into risking his life by crashing at a Grand Prix so that another member of the team - Fernando Alonso - could win and so bring glory to himself, the owner and Renault?
A despot? A megalomaniac? A man who should never again be trusted? A man who has turned sport into chicanery and totally disgraced it? All four.
A man who on the outset of Crashgate in Singapore repeatedly insisted, according to the World Motor Sport Council, "he had no knowledge of the affair."
A "deliberate falsehood" according to the WMSC. A liar. Worse, a man who, according to the same body, "manifestly did not guide Mr Piquet Jnr appropriately and indeed allowed and seemingly encouraged him to engage in potentially ruinous and life-threatening activities."
And a man who, despite sacking a series of QPR managers, has seen only one match this season.
Briatore has proved himself an extremely dangerous and untrustworthy character, totally prepared to bend the rules in the most cavalier and premeditated way.
As such he should no longer play any part in football, either.
Yesterday Mawhinney was at a "Leaders in Football" summit at Stamford Bridge along with similarly ennobled former politician "Lord" David Triesman, chairman of the FA.
Of the Briatore case, he would only say he had taken legal advice as to whether Football League rules were enforceable.
Well, they should have worked that one out at the onset when they put in place a fit and proper person's test that barred people from football who were subject to a ban from involvement in the administration of any other sport.
It seems pretty clear cut to me.
Mawhinney and his board members have, commendably, taken strong action when it came to docking numerous points from clubs who, to beat creditors, have opted for administration.
Now they have to be as positive with Briatore. There seems to be no reason to fudge the issue especially when the Italian, after being kicked out of his own sport, scarcely has a leg to stand on.
We would also hate to think some ex-politicos come into football for prestige and the trappings that come with jobs some people might view as sinecures.
They should have one word for Signor Briatore. Arrivederci.
Why this vile cheat must be Kicked out
Steve Howard in today's Sun, page 69
WE are always hearing what a hardline administrator Football League chairman Brian Mawhinney is.
Some sort of tough guy who brooks no argument.
Well, today he has a chance to show it when the Football League meet to discuss the footballing future of discredited motor-racing ty**** Flavio Briatore.
In his political career, Mawhinney was chairman of the Conservative Party in the last two years of the John Major government when hardly a week went by when one Tory MP or another was caught with his trousers metaphorically round his ankles.
He was also Minister of State at the Northern Ireland office.
So he knows about sleaze. And he knows about making tough decisions in tough areas.
This morning he chairs the meeting in Central London that will examine, among other things, whether former Renault F1 boss Briatore is a "fit and proper person" to continue as chairman of QPR Holdings and a director of the club.
This would seem to be a no-brainer. Should Guy Fawkes be allowed to use fireworks?
More appropriately, would you accept a lift to to the shops from Nelson Piquet Jnr? I don't think so.
Briatore has just been thrown out of his own sport for masterminding probably the worst case of cheating in sporting history.
What sort of man would coerce an impressionable 24-year-old into risking his life by crashing at a Grand Prix so that another member of the team - Fernando Alonso - could win and so bring glory to himself, the owner and Renault?
A despot? A megalomaniac? A man who should never again be trusted? A man who has turned sport into chicanery and totally disgraced it? All four.
A man who on the outset of Crashgate in Singapore repeatedly insisted, according to the World Motor Sport Council, "he had no knowledge of the affair."
A "deliberate falsehood" according to the WMSC. A liar. Worse, a man who, according to the same body, "manifestly did not guide Mr Piquet Jnr appropriately and indeed allowed and seemingly encouraged him to engage in potentially ruinous and life-threatening activities."
And a man who, despite sacking a series of QPR managers, has seen only one match this season.
Briatore has proved himself an extremely dangerous and untrustworthy character, totally prepared to bend the rules in the most cavalier and premeditated way.
As such he should no longer play any part in football, either.
Yesterday Mawhinney was at a "Leaders in Football" summit at Stamford Bridge along with similarly ennobled former politician "Lord" David Triesman, chairman of the FA.
Of the Briatore case, he would only say he had taken legal advice as to whether Football League rules were enforceable.
Well, they should have worked that one out at the onset when they put in place a fit and proper person's test that barred people from football who were subject to a ban from involvement in the administration of any other sport.
It seems pretty clear cut to me.
Mawhinney and his board members have, commendably, taken strong action when it came to docking numerous points from clubs who, to beat creditors, have opted for administration.
Now they have to be as positive with Briatore. There seems to be no reason to fudge the issue especially when the Italian, after being kicked out of his own sport, scarcely has a leg to stand on.
We would also hate to think some ex-politicos come into football for prestige and the trappings that come with jobs some people might view as sinecures.
They should have one word for Signor Briatore. Arrivederci.
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