QPR ISSUES

NOVEMBER 2005

QPR-LSA - 15th November
LSA Meeting with Club Representatives on Monday 7 November 2005
Present: Gianni Paladini, Steven Paladini, Steve Russell, Gary Colton, Victor Stevenson, Spencer Schwartz, Sylvia Dallibar, Steve Rapjohns, Albert Weight, Paul Finney, Joe English. Minutes taken on behalf of the LSA by Julia Hill.
Ian Holloway’s Contract
In answer to a question about the extension of Ian Holloway’s contract Gianni Paladini (GP) said the club cannot afford to pay Ian Holloway what he is asking for.
New Players
GP said we have been looking at players, especially strikers, from this country and also from as far afield as Zimbabwe, Sweden and South America. We are hoping to take a South American player on trial who GP described as “the new Rodney Marsh”.
LSA Children’s Christmas Party
GP promised that the players will attend the kids’ party, which is on 2 January this year.
Shabazz Baidoo
GP said the story about West Ham’s interest was untrue, and that Baidoo’s agent had been trying to secure better wages from QPR for the player.
The Loan and Running Costs
LSA reps asked whether there was any progress on renegotiating the loan. GP said that talks are underway with a UK bank to try and get them to take over the loan at a rate of 6.5% instead of the 10% that we currently pay. We are also in negotiations with ABC Corporation to try and reduce the lump sum we will have to pay them if the bank takes over the loan.
GP said: “The loan was not the immediate problem – the biggest problem here was getting running costs back under control and avoiding administration, which we have done.” He said the club has saved £160k a year, for example, just by not replacing Mark Devlin and Mark Austin.
Despite that, our outgoings are still phenomenal. GP said that in the last 18 months our income has been £18m but this has all been spent. In one month alone we paid out £1.2m on bills, “but we still have money in the bank”.
A Member asked whether we are doing anything about the way the ABC loan was taken out. GP said there is nothing we can do, so it is not worth pursuing.
GP repeated what he had said at the last meeting, namely that he and Antonio Caliendo had put £500k into the club in January 2005 to get us through the rest of the season.
Shares and Investment
GP announced that the people behind the Wanlock consortium are the wealthy Monaco-based Zanotti family. He said they are highly successful businessmen who run a company that provides supplies to war-torn areas. He added that Gualtiero Trucco will soon be stepping aside as Wanlock’s representative.
GP said Barnaby have just invested £1.1m by buying Bill Power’s shares.
A Member asked what form any future investment from Monaco might take once there are no more shares readily available to buy. GP said he thought it would probably consist of loans, “but they are not people who would call in the loans and send QPR into administration”.
In answer to a question about whether Bill Power had made a profit on his shares, GP said that people would have to draw their own conclusions. He said that Wasps had, arguably, a contractual liability to QPR for £1.5m. The club agreed to reduce this to £650k if Chris Wright would sell his shares for that amount and ensure that the money was put back into QPR. Wanlock, Barnaby, Kevin McGrath and Bill Power were all given options on Wright’s shares. Bill Power bought Wright’s shares for £650k and last week sold his shares for £1.1m.
GP said that a major firm of accountants, Deloitte Touche, are coming in next week to look over the club’s finances.
GP said the Football League had withheld £500k of funding to the club whilst they investigated claims about our debts.
Recent Signings
A Member asked whether Ian Holloway had himself approved of all our recent signings or whether the decision to sign some of the players had been made by GP.
GP said that Holloway had been given about £500k to spend, and GP gave him a list of some players to consider who would be affordable and who GP knew of through his contacts with agents and other people in the game. Holloway was particularly looking for a centre back, a left back, and a striker.
GP said that he and Holloway also went “round the world” looking at players together.
Holloway was very keen on signing Butler at centre back, but the asking price rocketed from £200k to £1m so we couldn’t afford him.
GP said he then recommended Ian Evatt to Holloway and said he thought we should buy him, and Holloway agreed. Evatt was being chased by several other clubs.
GP said he put a stop to the signing of Tore Andre Flo when Flo refused to do a medical at Rangers, and said that he feels he has since been proved right.
GP said he then lined up Milanese and Nygaard as possible targets and arranged a friendly at Spurs so that Holloway could have a look at both of them. Holloway said after the friendly that he wanted both players, and they were subsequently signed up.
In answer to a question about Stefan Moore’s form, GP said that his confidence is quite fragile and his head goes down easily.
Disabled Facilities
A Member asked what had happened about the disabled facilities in the School End that the club had said it hoped to unveil for the Luton game. GP said the improvements are grant funded and we are waiting for the grant, and that the club is fully committed to improving facilities.
Season Ticket Prices
GP said it was a shame that the “Kids for a quid” scheme at the Coventry game had suffered through the game being rescheduled, but the club could not turn down the £60k from Sky TV. He said that half season ticket prices would be favourable for children, and that next season providing we are still in this division there will be reductions for children and no increases for adults.
Home Fixture v Hull
Members emphasised the potential for trouble after what had happened at the away fixture in the wake of the London bombings, and GP said he would check that the police were adequately prepared.
Fans Forums
GP said he is arranging a Forum, hopefully early in the New Year.
Board Of Directors
A Member asked whether KMcG had resigned from the board of directors as there had been no announcement from the club. GP said yes, he had resigned, and if supporters wanted confirmation they could check with Companies House.
GP was asked what board meetings are like now that he is the only UK-based director. He said that Dunga may attend if he is in the country, but otherwise the attendance at board meetings usually consists of himself, Sheila Marson, Katie Springett and Chris Pennington.
A Member said that we had hoped Dunga’s contacts in the game would have been more productive by now. GP replied that there are difficulties with work permits for overseas players, but we are still trying.
Pre-Season Next Year
Members asked what the plans were. GP said that at the moment we are looking at either Italy or the South of France. Brian Melzack and Terry Fenwick have approached the club about a pre-season tour of Trinidad and Tobago but GP is unwilling to sign up for this at the moment because the dates that have been proposed so far clash with the play-offs.
Youth Milk Cup in Northern Ireland
A Member pointed out that this is a major youth tournament that big European clubs take part in and asked whether Rangers would be entering. It was agreed that Paul Finney would give GP’s contact details to Ian Stewart to see if an invitation for QPR’s youth team could be obtained.
Maximising the Use of Loftus Road
A Member asked whether any non-QPR events have been arranged at Loftus Road. GP said the recent rugby fixture had made good money for QPR, although they had used oil-based paint for some of their lines which was difficult to remove and the Reading game had nearly been called off as a result. GP said that we now have a good relationship with the Australia and New Zealand national teams and he is hopeful that they may want to stage future games at Loftus Road.
The Ground
In response to questions about where QPR will play in future, GP said that Loftus Road is a great ground and he wishes he had the money to renovate it. People who visit the ground for the first time love it and say it is “a proper football stadium”. GP said that with the state of the club’s finances and the scarcity of land in the local area, anyone who talks about a new ground is talking rubbish: “I do not expect QPR to move in my lifetime”.
Player of the Year Do
There was a discussion about how this event may be excluding ordinary supporters by having become too big and expensive. A Member added that at last year’s event it seemed that the front row seats were occupied by family and friends of a member of staff whilst “ordinary supporters” were left on the fringes.
Members asked the club to consider splitting the end of season do so that there is one ‘corporate’ event and another cheaper, more accessible one for ordinary fans.
Training Ground
A Member asked what the future held, given that we only have a 5-year lease at Harlington. GP said we have been offered the possibility of the land opposite the current training ground in five years’ time.
The Italian Way
A Member asked what GP had meant when he said recently that he wants to run the club “the Italian way”. GP replied that he has put money in and he wants to be hands-on, he wants to know where supporters’ money is going, and who’s getting paid for what.
A Member asked whether this was different from Chris Wright’s intentions. GP said that he is a football man and that people should stick to what they know: Chris Wright was neither a football man nor hands-on in his management of QPR.
Scouting
A Member asked how many players Gary Penrice has brought to the club. GP said none.The LSA Committee http://www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/


---------------------------------------------------------------------------


OCTOBER 2005

QPR 1st
Minutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005

In attendance:
QPR Holdings Ltd Reps:
Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officer

QPR 1st Reps:
Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) Chairperson
Other: Tony Altieri; Italian translator

Venue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC.

Foreword

Friday’s meeting was the second in what we hope will be a series with the new board at QPR holdings ltd and with key club personnel.

As per the first meeting, the agenda/format of the meeting was taken from questions arising from a document, which had been prepared by the Trust in advance.

The meeting was a lunchtime one, which allowed for a slightly more relaxed atmosphere as it meant that unlike at evening appointments, we weren’t constantly clock watching.

Due to Antonio Caliendo’s attendance, we felt it would be worthwhile all round if the Trust were able to secure the services of an Italian interpreter as we understood that his English is not too hot, and so after some searching around, we came up trumps thanks to the Bedford Rs posse and their Italian contacts.

Tony, as it turns out, is a wine rep and works for one of Italy’s biggest pasta manufacturers. When Gianni Paladini and Antonio Caliendo heard about this they became rather animated because they apparently would like to introduce a variety of pasta ranges into QPR for the players and hospitality areas etc, whilst the company concerned are interested in breaking into the English sporting market. The various people concerned are going to have a chat about this possibility next week, which just goes to show what a small world it is in which we all live.

The responses and quotes from Mr Caliendo within the report are as a result of the exchanges and translations between Tony, GP and AC, and whilst at times there were lengthy chats between all three, Tony ensured he translated back to both of us exactly what had been said, and we’d like to express our sincere thanks to him for helping us out because his services helped to ensure that the meeting ran smoothly. He also helped to put Mr Caliendo at ease, which with the way Italian football clubs are run i.e. in a rather autocratic style where owners/boards run the clubs and supporters ‘support’ their clubs without getting too involved within the internal affairs, was a rather important factor to our minds in terms of showing him the English way so to speak.

With so much to talk about, it was obvious that we were never going to be able to keep to the agenda strictly, but what follows is an accurate report on how it went, and on all issues raised and responses.

We hope you enjoy the report and if anyone would like to ask us anything relating to it then please do get in touch.

Tracy & Geoff

Introduction and questions for Antonio Caliendo
Once the informal introductions had been made it was down to business and first on the agenda were a number of questions for AC. It was explained that due to the recent newspaper articles and publicity surrounding him, (TS produced a copy of the recent article in the guardian written by David Conn) many supporters are very curious to learn more abut him and was asked to introduce himself to the average QPR supporter.

Firstly, the article was mentioned and GP said that a phone interview had taken place, which meant some of AC’s responses had been misinterpreted. For instance, AC is not going to be the new chairman as was reported, GP is the Chairman, and AC is helping him out in his capacity as consultant to the Wanlock and Barnaby groups. It was asked if it were true that AC has given up his FIFA agent’s license, and if so, what it would mean in terms of his organisation in Monaco? AC confirmed that he has given up his licence and that there will be a club/board restructure in the future. In terms of his organisation, this will not be affected because he has other people running it, he is more a figurehead of it, “the president”.

TS then asked if there were any issues with the FA or the Football league relating to AC’s rather chequered past? AC responded by saying there are no problems, that he accepts there is some ‘past’ but that he wants to start with a clean slate regarding QPR. “If there were any problems with the football authorities then I would not have been granted my FIFA licence”

He was then asked why give up his licence for the sake of QPR? AC responded by saying how Gianni Paladini is an old friend of his, that GP approached him to see if he could help him out, so he (AC) approached others, based in Monaco, and that “they have invested on the back of his trust”. Once again the subject of the consortias was raised with AC reiterating there was no need for fans to concern themselves, and that there were no sinister motives. They had invested based on their trust in him and he then went on to mention reputations, how he would not have come here unless he felt he could make it work and that he “wants the supporters to be very proud of the way the club is run”.

When asked on further clarification regarding AC’s role relating to the two groups, we were once again informed that AC is a “consultant” to them.

Another issue raised was the one relating to the sponsorship of his son’s racing car, and if it costs the club anything? CP said that he could confirm the sponsorship does not cost the club anything whilst AC said that he sponsors his son regarding any money from his own pocket, and that he thought it would be a nice gesture for the QPR club crest to be shown on his son’s car whilst participating in racing events.

Revisiting the background to recent events
Whilst it became apparent that GP did not wish to speak about many of the recent events, including the alleged gun incident and the departures of Bill Power and Mark Devlin, we raised the subject of the board minutes which had been published in the evening standard from that meeting back in August, and said how when on asking to view them ourselves, the Trust had been informed that due to the confidential nature of some of the content relating to them, the club were unable to issue them to us, and then lo and behold only days later large chunks from those minutes had appeared in the ES for all and sundry to read.

CP replied that he understood our frustrations but that the club themselves had been doubly frustrated by the leaked minutes and went on to say how as a business, they could not release board minutes due to the confidential nature but that they (the club/board) would try to be as open as they possibly could be.

GP said that whilst talking about the evening standard, he had that very day, received the offer on an apology from them. He was deciding what to do.

Note: since being told this by GP on Friday, we are hearing a conflicting side of the story from the evening standard, who say they have not offered GP an apology. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

We then asked about if there were an update on the situation in relation to a general manager’s position at the club, once again explaining that with there now being no CEO, supporters are not sure who to contact at the club if they have any concerns, issues or general feedback they’d like to raise with the club. GP and CP both said that the various departments are in charge of their own areas and therefore if anyone has any problems in relation to say tickets, then supporters need to contact the box office etc. As was pointed out to them though, not all fans are in the fortunate position to be able to know exactly who to contact and that regarding supporter customer care, in our opinion, a general manager/customer liaison manager is required for the supporters. GP said that when Mark Devlin’s pa comes back to work, she will be asked to be the pa to the board, and one of the responsibilities would entail her forwarding any queries etc received to be sent to the various departments.

We will however continue to pursue this matter.

We asked for an update on the structure of the club, and also pointed out that it might not actually be good corporate practice to have one individual in almost total control of club affairs. AC showed us a partially completed organisation chart listing the re-vamped staff structure. It is assumed the Trust will be given a copy of the final version of this in order to assist supporter communications with the club.

GP did say, as mentioned before, that a possible board restructure could be happening in the future in order to give him support.

We then asked the question about Kevin McGrath and if they could inform us as to why he had resigned from the board? GP and CP informed that it had been a mutual agreement, that Kevin has political aspirations, and when asked what is happening about his shares, they said that they do not know.

Finances
The next part of the report relates to the financial issues discussed and for easy reading, we have sectioned the various topics into individual paragraphs.

a) 2004/5 accounts
GP/CP advised these are completed and will show a loss in the region of £2.5million. The club intend to publish these to the members and call an AGM shortly.

b) 2005/6 budget
When asked about the projected losses, CP explained the loss in the current season would be between £1 and £1.5 million. It was accepted that CP could be no more specific as we are only five months in to the club’s financial year. The amount of the loss will also be affected by and transfer activity in January. CP went on to say that that under the new regime, the budget would be drawn up each year on a break-even basis rather than under one of the previous regimes when up to £3 million loss was budgeted with the misplaced hope that new investors would come in to finance the deficit.

GP stated that from now on the club would be run in “The Italian Way” in that he would be in charge of the day to day running and the club would look to break even.
When asked to elaborate further on what he meant by “The Italian Way” he said that basically so far they cut back staffing “to help the club” and that basically the Italian way means streamlining in that there will be more work with less people.

He also said that they have now stopped making payments ‘on invoice’ and that all payments now go out at the end of each month i.e. players wages one specific date each month, staff wages the next, and bills etc the next day.

He and AC also said that previously any one from five signatories could authorise cheques. Now it is 3 signatories required.

c) Agents’ fees
We asked, once and for all, could we clear up the agent’s fees issues, including the Brian Hassall/Nygaard situation, and also how much are we likely to spend on agents this year? GP told us that agents’ fees are a fact of life in football and he was now in charge of authorising these. He stated that the club will no longer pay fees for the renewals of contracts, that these would be down to players to pay their agents direct, and stated that Nygaard’s agent's fee was to be paid in tranches, and related to a player who cost nothing on a “Bosman”. We did get the feeling that GP was unwilling to be specific as to the level of future agents fees but he was willing to say that these would be within the overall budget to be prepared by CP. This may explain some of the uncertainty in the 2005/6 budget.

And the Nygaard situation we asked? GP said that they had tried to sign Torre Andre Flo in the summer, that this had fallen through and so because a big man up front was required, he put enquiries out and the name of a player at Brecce came through. This player was Marc Nygaard, he came over with his agent (along with Milanese) who was Brian Hassall. BH he admitted was an agent with whom a court case had taken place with in the past, and that yes, he (GP) had been awarded to pay him costs.

TS asked if the rumour were true that Nygaard in fact had been a player without any agent, and that as a result of this, BH had taken up an agent’s role representing Nygaard, in order for a fee to be struck between them as part of a “costs deal”?
“Absolutely not true” was GP’s response, he insisted that Hassall had been Nygaard’s agent, that in fact there was a dispute relating to a couple of other agents who had insisted that they in fact were his agents, and that the £60k was an inclusive amount.

d) New finance and future loans
Next up to be discussed was the issue of new finance and further loans by directors. GP explained that any losses from now on would be financed by new loans from the Monaco shareholders or directors. CP went on to say these new loans would be interest free and unsecured. He also stated they would be structured in such a way that these loans will not be repayable on demand which meant that if the investors lost interest in the club they would not be able to demand their money back, expect immediate repayment and if this did not happen, put the club back into administration.

e) Players Contracts
The highest basic wage paid by the club is £3,500 per week, which is augmented by bonuses and incentives. The players’ budget is estimated at £3.5m. GP was unwilling to state if he felt we could keep to this amount for the current year.

f) Paye and Vat
CP confirmed that Paye was being paid each month shortly after the due date of the 19th. This means the current year (2005/6) is to all intents and purposes is up to date and no new arrears are being created. There were some unspecified arrears from previous years that are reducing and being repaid monthly. Despite being asked the direct question CP was not willing to divulge the exact amount of these arrears.
It was confirmed that Vat was being paid on time and the club was not currently being subjected to any Vat surcharges as a result of late payments.

g) Interest paid
We asked why the club had paid £1,150,000 interest in the 2004 accounts when only £1,000,000 was attributable to ABC and were told the extra £150,000 was in relation to “old regime” directors and shareholder loans, as well as to late payment interest for Paye and Vat.

ABC loan
We asked the question if The ABC Corporation are connected with any of the Monaco consortiums or the investors behind them. GP and AC seemed to find this amusing and stated categorically that ABC and the Monaco groups are not the same!

GP and CP explained they had no more clue than us as to who was behind ABC. There is very little copy correspondence in the QPR offices in relation to the loan. CP advised that he did not know if any arrangement fee or commission was paid on the loan when originally set up. CP also stated that at the beginning of each financial year on 1st June the figures showed a £1million loss. It is hoped that ABC may accept early repayment of the loan, which will be re financed with a more traditional identifiable lender.

We asked GP if there were any update on this, and if so would he be able to tell us with which banks the club are hoping to renegotiate with. GP stated that so far there have been talks with two banks, one of which would offer an interest rate of 6.5, whilst the other would offer 7%. He is unable to inform us at the time being as to which banks they have been talking to but CP said if they could get the loan renegotiated with a traditional institution, they would feel safer. He also said that on such a renegotiated deal, £300,000 per year in interest charges could be saved which could be directed to repaying the £10 million originally borrowed.

When asked about any fee charges for early repayment by ABC and CP said it would be negotiable.

And what about any new bank, what kind of security would they look at in order to protect their money? It was stated that any bank would secure a charge on the assets i.e. the ground.

And is there any truth in the rumour that the club have been behind in its payments to the ABC Corporation we asked? Absolutely not replied GP.

BP shares and the Hoops Fund
We asked who was going to buy Bill Power’s shares and it was suggested they would most probably be bought by one of the Monaco groups, or even possibly another Monaco consortium with different ownership to the two existing investors.

We explained that the Hoops fund currently holds £12,500 of supporters money, which in order to comply with the original concept, has to be spent on buying shares in QPR Holdings, with the money going to the club for a specific good cause. We acknowledged that the company is not in a position to create new shares as the Authorised capital is all issued and any increase would cost in excess of £5,000 in legal fees.

We asked AC if he would be willing to speak to the Monaco group/s that would be purchasing Bill Power’s shares to ask them if they would allow us to purchase a small portion of them before they buy them all. AC and GP said they would look into it for us sometime in the near future when there is not so much going on.

CP then stated he may know of someone who would be prepared to sell their existing shareholding for a nominal sum at the same time as the balance of HF monies going to the club. We stated that we would hope to achieve a holding based on the same price as that for recent/pending share transactions and he said he appreciates that any money going in to the club would have to be allocated to a specific project e.g. disabled facilities. He suggested we put our request in writing to him and he will then talk to other shareholders, as well as to AC.

Future of the club
We firstly asked if the board could speak about the entire atmosphere at the club recently and if it feels it is positive for the players, staff, and supporters? All three board members present admitted that the recent months and weeks had been difficult ones, that it hadn’t been easy, but that they now felt things were stabilising more. AC spoke once again of the Italian method, how in Italy they (the board) run the clubs and the fans support the team. He said he likes the idea that boards and supporters are close and that he would like to go back to Italy and show them the English way.

We moved on then to talk about ticket prices and asked if the fall off in attendances were leading to a loss of income greater than anticipated or budgeted for? CP confirmed that gate turnover is up in the current year in terms of monetary terms even though crowds are down. The likelihood of this continuing during the latter part of the season of course though will depend on future performances etc. Both GP and CP could not advise as to the split in the decreased season ticket numbers between Adults/Juniors/Student/OAP.

AC said that when the season tickets went up they (GP and himself) were not consulted.

We then asked a rather difficult question in that if AC could clarify as to the substance of the rumours we heard last year about a sale and leaseback of the ground having been mooted by him and other board members? And also would the current board consider doing a sale and leaseback of the Loftus Road ground in the future?

AC said he would not respond to something like that as it was a complete non-goer. GP himself appeared to become quite agitated regarding this matter and said how he could not understand why so many people seemed to talk about the sale of the ground and insinuating that they (the new board) were a bunch of crooks. GG explained that there have been instances in the past of clubs having lost their grounds after false promises by their owners (Brighton and Maidstone were given as examples) and that supporters only wished to seek reassurances that their club would have a ground to play at in the future.

Which then led to a rather interesting discussion about a potential new ground in which basically the idea is that QPR would ‘own’ a new ground on the Astroturf/park site in South Africa road, which would cost in excess of £40m to build. This would apparently be self-financing. GP stated twice that should such an idea become a reality, QPR would own the new ground, and would stay at the existing Loftus Road whilst it was being built.

We stated that if such a new ground were to ever go ahead i.e. if the council were to give planning permission etc, then there would need to be a strict stipulation that QPR would remain playing at LR until the new ground would be built. GP agreed and said he would agree to this as being a written condition within any planning application.

We did point out to GP that football is littered with architect’s models of new stadiums that have never happened hence our initial scepticism.

One final question asked before CP and Tony had to leave the meeting was how the board envisage the various groups remaining at QPR for the foreseeable future, particularly so if we do not go up either for this or next season? GP responded by saying that as far as he is concerned he is here for the foreseeable future, that he only wants to do what is right for the club, and AC reiterated that the people in the Monaco groups have invested because of their trust in him and so he cannot see any reason as to why they would wish to pull out.

AOB

Season tickets and future ideas

With Tony and CP having departed we then moved onto a couple of other specific issues with the first one being the season ticket/matchday ticket prices. We presented to GP and AC a document that the Trust had put together containing a number of proactive marketing ideas relating to this whole matter.

The suggestion was for GP and AC to have a look at it all, for GP to liaise with Mike Pink at the commercial and marketing department, and also with Jenny Elliott, the box office manager, because they will be the people that will need to decide upon the feasibility of such ideas, and for us all to have a little chat about it in a month’s time or so.

To view the documents (there are 2, one is suggested ideas for season tickets/matchday prices and the other is a doc with suggested student schemes) click on the links on the homepage from where the link for this report was posted. We welcome any feedback on this.

GG also handed GP and AC a copy each of a Goodwood racecourse members’ booklet containing information on reciprocal events. The suggested idea of QPR looking into a similar reciprocal basis relating to other sporting events has been mentioned within the season tickets document as an idea to think about to give season ticket holders some kind of extra benefit.

Football league letter
The old chestnut of the football league letter, sent to the old board back in March 2002, in which it was apparently stated that in order to retain its membership of the FL, QPR needed to come out of administration by the time the fixture list came out, was raised, with TS asking GP if he would give the Trust permission to go to the football league, informing them that the supporters trust had the permission of the club to allow it to publish this letter on their website, thus clearing up the matter once and for all? GP said he would be happy to give us permission, said he hadn’t seen the letter himself, TS assured him it did exist, and so he is going to sign a letter to the effect asking the FL to allow us to do this.

Fans Forum
We asked if there were any update on this since our last meeting, TS pointed out that it was part of the club’s customer charter, and GP informed he would speak to Phil Harris and get something arranged for before Christmas.

Ian Holloway
The final question to be asked related to Ian Holloway, and if there were any news on a new contract for him? GP refused to be drawn on the subject and just said that Ian Holloway is the manager, and that any talks of new contracts would occur as and when.

Summary
We would like to thank Gianni Paladini, Antonio Caliendo and Chris Pennington for their time. The meeting lasted for over two and a half hours and was based on a part formal/part informal structure. Whilst there remain unanswered questions, we do feel that it was most certainly a worthwhile meeting and we hope that what we have reported on has been of interest to members and the fanbase in general alike.

We are conscious that there are many on-pitch issues to be discussed but with time so scarce we opted to pursue the off-pitch matters that the Trust feels required flagging during the time that we had. We will though continue to push for a fans forum at which there will be plenty of opportunity for all kinds of issues to be discussed with GP and relevant club personnel.

CP reminded us he has now been with the club for a year and stated that he was sleeping soundly at night for the first time in ages. He accepted that the club’s £9 million turnover meant it was not a particularly large business and appeared anxious to avoid falling into the trap of spending money as if it were a company with a larger turnover. It will be interesting to see if CP delivers the 2005 accounts on time (as promised by GP at our two meetings now) and with the exception of the Paye arrears, CP answered all our questions, and more, without having to research.

Regarding the situation of a potential new ground, we are pursuing a meeting with the local authority, they have been frustratingly slow in getting back to us, but we will persevere with this.
http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEPTEMBER 2005

QPR 1st - Sept 2005


Minutes/Report from Meeting with Club/Board Thursday 15 th September 2005
In attendance:
QPR Holdings Ltd Rep: Gianni Paladini (GP)
QPR 1 st Reps: Geoff Gibbs (GG); Tracy & Leon Stent (TS LS); Richard Bristow (RB)
Official Supporters Club Reps: Geraldine Field (GF); Pat Harrison (PH),
Karen Hampshire (KH) ; Joe Hylton (JH)
Club Security?: Terry?
Venue: The Chairman's Suite, QPR FC.
Foreword
Thursday evening's meeting was the first one the Trust has had with any QPR Board member/s since March earlier on this year. At that meeting the board members in attendance were Bill Power, Mark Devlin and Kevin McGrath. This time around, due to recent events, there was just Gianni Paladini (GP) from the Board in attendance. For the sake of practicalities the meeting also encompassed a couple of reps from the Official Supporters Club (OSC).
The agenda/format of the questions was taken from the document, which had been prepared by the Trust in advance, and as most of the questions the OSC reps wished to raise were also covered within this doc, they chipped in and interacted when they felt the need.
The meeting was due to start at 6pm and it started near enough on the dot. Before doing so at one stage there was a knock on the door of the room where we were having the meeting, which turned out to be two police officers that were going to be on duty outside. GP explained that this was nothing to do with us (thank goodness for that!) and that they were to do with the ‘other business'.
It is also worth pointing out that at the onset of the meeting, we advised GP that we had a number of questions and points to raise with him which are the result of supporters' concerns following the events of recent weeks. And that we hoped that during the course of the meeting we would not come across to him as intentionally hostile, asking him to put himself into the shoes of the supporters that in the past month have known nothing except spin, conflicting stories and uncertainty, and therefore asked him to please not to take offence at any of the issues flagged during the course of the meeting.
We also sent GP the questions in advance during that afternoon so as to give him a bit of time to peruse over them, however we were informed that the email at the club had unfortunately gone down and so he didn't receive them in advance.
From a Chairperson perspective, due mostly to the ambitious set of questions we had assembled after consultation with the Trust membership and fans in general, it was always going to be a struggle to keep to the agenda, although what follows is an accurate representation of what was a very busy, and fruitful, evening.
Obviously, because we had so much to cover and ran out of time, it was agreed for us to pop anything which requires further clarification, or was unanswered due to the time constraints, into a letter for him and for us to meet with Gianni Paladini in a month's time or so when hopefully he will have been able to liaise with the relevant club personnel as regards some of the outstanding queries.
We hope you enjoy the report and if anyone would like to ask us anything relating to it then please do get in touch.
Tracy Stent
Introduction
The various individuals introduced themselves by name and then PH gave a brief description of the OSC and of the fundraising ventures that the organisation has been involved with, in2win, helping to raise funds to go towards the QPR youth academy etc. TS explained a bit about the Supporters Trust, how its aims of supporter influence and consultation were in line with all Supporters' Trusts across the country, and handed GP a copy of the Trust's mission statement for him to look at afterwards.
Background to recent events
We then moved on to talk about recent events and when we say that, we mean that we asked for a bit of clarity regarding the events since the board meeting that took place on 24 th August. TS showed GP a print out of the conflicting stories and statements that have been in the public domain either on websites or in the press during the course of the last 2 weeks. Starting with the statement from the Board Directors on the club official website taken from 25 th August in which it was declared that Bill Power and Kevin McGrath were seeking legal advice regarding the vote taken to vote BP off as Chairman of the Board; to the report which appeared in the Evening Standard newspaper the next day in which BP refuted the legality of the vote; to a messageboard statement from BP only hours later in which his tone had appeared to have changed to a more subdued one; to Gianni's first official statement on the proceedings made on 30 th August on the official website in which he claimed the pair of them were still friends, followed by BP's leaving statement on the official website in which he cited health problems as his reason for leaving his position of QPR Chairman; to the article which appeared in the local Gazette last Friday week on the 2 nd September which gave a rather different angle on recent events in which it was stated that BP had admitted defeat in his attempt to be reinstated as Chair, that the showdown had resulted after a series of bitter divisions behind the scenes, and that Gianni Paladini had proposed initially that Bill Power be removed from the board completely but that he (BP) will be staying on as a director.
GP was urged to think about how all those conflicting stories looked to the fans and when asked if it were true (as per in the newspaper report) that it had been proposed for Bill Power to be removed from the board completely, he said this wasn't true and that the vote had been for his removal of Chairman and not as a director.
The issue of the vote was discussed at length, and GP said that the matter of the removal of Bill had been entered onto the agenda and was emailed out on the 2 nd August. This gave the statutory 21 days notice relating to which issues would be up for discussion at the next meeting, which was to take place on the 24th August, and that Dunga was entitled 100% to his vote. It was agreed that this was the case, and that on looking at the company articles, unless a resolution had been put in place prior to that meeting in order to prevent Dunga from having his vote due to missed meetings, then Dunga's vote did appear to be legal.
GP became quite confused and seemed to be under the impression that it had been us (i.e. the Trust) that had tried to refute the Dunga vote until we explained that we had actually just merely looked into the logistics on whether or not he was able to vote. We also explained that we had requested a copy of the minutes from that meeting from the company secretary (which were refused us on the basis of confidential matters) purely because we had been trying to ascertain the fact from the rumours relating to that particular vote.
Whilst talking about Dunga we mentioned how in the company articles we had noted how there is the entitlement to enable Board meetings to take place by video conference, thereby meaning that Dunga would not need to travel from Japan , thus saving money on expenses. GP felt this was a good idea and had not been aware of this. GG mentioned how there is an 8-hour difference so if the Board did consider this option then they would have to take the time difference into consideration.
We spoke a bit more about the voting off of Bill Power and GP said that when a Board disagrees it is not good, that Bill had resigned and that “we have taken over the club”. On trying to get him to elaborate a little more on this it became apparent that GP did not wish to talk about BP for any longer, saying that currently there is no contact between himself and Bill, and so we then moved on to talk about Mark Devlin
We spoke about his employment rights and asked for clarification regarding any redundancy/severance payments MD will be entitled to, and if there had been a compromise agreement signed preventing MD from taking future legal action against the club. GP spoke a bit about MD's previous salary, how they couldn't find his original contract, how some minutes from one meeting had gone missing which led to misunderstandings, and then how in August a new contract for MD had been negotiated, which also included a company car.
He said he'd like to thank Mark for his work and time whilst employed at the club but it was felt that the position of CEO at a club like QPR was surplus to requirement. We asked him about the comments he had made about MD making decisions with just Bill Power and asked him if apart from the AEK Athens meeting, had MD made any other decisions on his own (or with Bill) without informing the rest of the Board? GP said there had been a couple of other little things but that the issue of reviewing the position of CEO had been an agenda item. And when asked if the decision to ‘do away' with the position had been based on the individual himself or the CEO position, GP said it had been position related and not personal. He said that they (the board) were in the process of negotiation as regards any severance payments made to Mark.

Whilst on the subject of Mark, GG said how when the Trust had met with him in the past he had shown himself to be a competent enough chief executive, who had gained relevant experience and skills during his time at Swindon, which then led onto a discussion about the structure at QPR, and how we felt that with MD now gone, and with no general manager at the club, the first port of call for supporters when contacting the club had now disappeared. PH gave him an example of this in that there had been recent confusion regarding the prices Leeds fans would be paying to gain entry to QPR for the forthcoming game at Loftus Road . Normally a quick line or phone call to Mark would have got this issue through to the club in asking them to find out if it were true. But with him not being there she rang Leeds herself who confirmed that the figures given on a couple of Leeds websites were incorrect.
TS then handed GP a copy of a table based on some quick research the Trust had done regarding the other Championship clubs and who the first port of calls are for their fans showing that ¾ of the clubs still have CEO's and those that don't have a general manager or customer care officer (This table can be viewed for interest by clicking on this link). This table also showed that QPR is the only current Championship club without such a first port of call.
GP began to suggest that maybe one of us in that room might like to do it but we said how that wasn't the idea and that someone with the relevant skills and experience would be required to take such a role on and that we were talking a paid employee.
GP then said that as Mark Austin is leaving his position at the club as commercial director, and with Mike Pink from the clubshop getting promoted to Austin 's position, that he would have a think about a dual role.
Board Structure and Shares
We then went on to talk about the structure of the QPR Board and the shares aspect.
Firstly we asked for an explanation as to who exactly Wanlock LLC and Barnaby holdings LLC are, and who represents which particular group on the board of QPR Holdings ltd? GP said that Moorbound is himself and his wife Olga. Carlos Dunga represents Barnaby and there is another person connected to Barnaby but he doesn't know who. 4 Italians, who are retired and live in Monte Carlo , own Wanlock. Gualtiero Trucco is the representative for Wanlock on the Board of QPR Holdings Ltd. The shareholding in the company for the groups collectively comes to around 45%.
We then asked for an explanation on Antonio Caliendo, asking is he a football agent, what his role at the club is, has he had any involvement with the signing of any of the players, and why is he apparently acting like a director when he doesn't appear to be one.
GP said that Antonio is an agent. He is “a big man, a big shot in the world of football” and went on to say how he got him (GP) out of trouble last summer when extra money was required to help fund some of the debt at that time. He helped to find the people that are in the Barnaby and Wanlock groups, and that Caliendo is not a director but is a consultant to both groups. He is/was Dunga's agent, he wasn't Diaz's agent and he denied that CP is Ugo Ukah's agent, saying that Ukah's agent is Sam someone or other (couldn't remember the surname). The reason why Caliendo is seen quite a bit around QPR is because of his consultancy role with the two groups.
Gualtiero Trucco is only expected to be here occasionally, hence why he was only installed as temporary/interim Chairman.
There were then a few questions for Gianni Paladini relating to the Board structure with the first one being has he had any experience in the running of a multi-faceted business? He said no and was wished the best of luck! Next came up the issue of why he hadn't himself taken up a directorship on the Board straightaway after Moorbound first invested last year and why Azeem Malik, and then Olga had represented the company's interests rather than himself? GP said that as he had been an agent, he had to wait a period until his FIFA badge had officially gone back, along with thinking it best to keep a low profile in the background, Olga was given the position to “keep her sweet” as she didn't want him going into football to such an extent.
On asking if it is true that GP is going to be voted on as Chair of the club by the rest of the Board at the next meeting, he confirmed that this was true. He also said that they were looking at Dunga to be present on a more regular basis from now on (again our suggestion of the video conference thing came up) and that there is an idea for him and Ian Holloway to go to Brazil to look at players in the future.
RB asked the question if Mr Holloway might be invited to join the Board at some stage and GP said this had not been discounted.
We then went on to mention David Morris, saying how we appreciated that GP could not speak about the events at the Sheffield United game but we did ask him if DM had been/was a director and GP replied that he had not been a director though he is a shareholder. We asked if it were true that DM had set up a company called QPR Catering Ltd and he said he had been in the process of setting it up but with the events of the Sheffield United game this had now not gone ahead. We asked who had introduced him/recommended him to the Board but he declined to answer, which we fully understood.
One final thing we asked of GP himself was how he viewed his responsibilities to QPR and if he commutes daily from Solihull . He said he did have a lot of responsibility and that the buck now falls with him and asked ultimately for the fans to judge him on his actions and what happens in the future. He said he does commute from Solihull and when asked if he has a house/place here to stay in London he said no, though he does sometimes stay at Stefan Moore's place.
With Mark Devlin's departure, GP talked of taking on extra responsibilities himself but TS, PH and KH also pointed out to him that no man is an island. This was in respect of him taking on extra responsibilities such as the Chair, a managing director's role in kind, as well as the consultancy duties he views under his agents/transfers/playing matters role. We did not though have time to ask him if presumably taking on these extra duties would also mean extra money for him salary-wise.
We then went on to talk about the shares aspect and unsurprisingly the first thing that cropped up was the recent article on the BBC website in which it claimed that not only was Bill Power standing down as a director in the company, but that he would be selling his shares also. We asked if it is correct that the Monaco groups have first refusal on them, and if so, was this a result of a shareholders agreement between the main majority shareholders?
GP confirmed the article was correct; that the shares are offered to the Board at the discretion of BP/the Board and that there is a shareholders agreement to this effect.
We asked would the groups then be putting in an offer to buy these shares. GP said yes, they were looking into it, which is when we asked if they (the Board) would consider allotting a tiny portion of those shares to be transferred to the Trust in exchange for the Hoops Fund monies. Even though he seemed a little confused about what we were talking about, GP seemed receptive to the idea, especially when we explained that although it's only a small amount of money, it all helps, and we would specifically require the money to go towards either a community venture or stadium upgrade (disabled section for instance). It was agreed to discuss this issue on a separate occasion in the near future.
Budget and Financial Issues
The discussion next which followed on budget and finance related issues was quite lengthy, and with GG quoting various facts and figures from the last two year's worth of accounts/balance sheets, we have outlined below the most relevant points flagged, discussed and responded to.
• Current Losses – At the AGM on July 4 th 2005, it had been estimated that the company was looking to break even though in reality the losses were being projected for between an estimate of £0.5m - £1m. It was asked if it were true we are currently heading for losses of £2.4m with the player's budget heading to be almost £1m over? GP refuted both questions, said that we are currently on course to break even and that it wasn't true about the player's budget. The accounts for year-end May 2005 are ready now and expected to be finalised soon.
• Stemming current/future losses – It was asked how the Board intends to stem any losses and would there be further loans by directors? GP said that even if £2m is lost the Monaco group/s would put the money in though he wouldn't elaborate on whether he was talking gifts or loans
• Main creditors that are owed money by the club and outstanding loans (except ABC) – Who are they and when do they have to be paid back by? GP responded by saying that not a penny is owed to the bank (obviously with the exception of ABC), there are no debts, with just the normal electricity, gas bills etc ongoing. By the 19 th September the PAYE will be up to date and the inland revenue is now also up to date. No one is knocking on the door and we have no post-debts. £650,000 came via Chris Wright, which was swallowed up by bills. And loans we asked again? What about loans outstanding to Bill Power? To which GP replied that Ross Jones was paid back the £200/£250k he was owed from last year. At which point GP began to go into a tirade about Jones, saying how he wrote to the club threatening to put in a winding up order on the club should he not receive the money he had loaned the club. TS questioned if it were true though that part of the deal which had been agreed when Jones stood down from his position on the Board last year, was that he got his money back as soon as possible as he had apparently remortgaged his home in order to loan the company the money it had needed at that time. GP refuted this and said that no contract had existed regarding Jones and his loan. And what of other loans? Is there proof of loans made and are they traceable? GP started going off track at that point and said that the money he/Moorbound had put in last year had not been a loan, he had paid the £650k in and “if he loses it, he loses it”.
• Fresh funding/Investment – GG asked what ideas the Board have had in relation to this and if they have considered a new shares issue at all for the future to bring more money in? GP became a little confused into relation with what was being spoken about in comparison to the shares that are available to buy at present (i.e. Bill Power's ones) until it was explained that the issuing of new shares is one way of bringing extra money into the company which is a safer way of bringing in investment rather than loans by directors, which can be called in at any time. And what of potential investors? Are the Board looking for any to help take the club forward and what kind of criteria would be expected from people should they have a proposal package for investment into the company? GP said that they'd be happy to talk to anyone that could pay off the loan but not to small investors.
• Season tickets – It was asked if the Board are satisfied with the season ticket situation at the club, especially regarding the changes to the child/student/oap structure? GP responded by saying that a discussion did take place regarding putting up the season ticket prices (this discussion also included Ian Holloway!), that it was agreed to put the prices up, but that he didn't know/wasn't consulted about how much/the cost. He said that £158,000 more has been generated so far on daily/matchday tickets (not season tickets) than last year on gate money. He guaranteed that there will be no price rises next year for kids and when asked if consultation with the fans this time around would be considered he said he thought it a good idea.
• Agents fees – We asked GP to please clarify the situation regarding agents fees, and in particular the amount that was paid to Ian Evatt's agent. GP said the amount was £40,000 and when we queried why he had reported it the previous week that it had been £3,000 he claimed it was a misunderstanding. The fee was £40,000 to be paid over 3 years. Mel Eves, who was Evatt's agent received £3k, BP and GP went to Spain with Mel Eves to do the deal. There was another agent involved (he didn't name him) and with the final bill/deal for Evatt coming to £175,000, GP said that the agent's fee collectively came to £40,000. GP claimed that every deal (didn't specify which deals!) was signed by BP and MD and that he himself has never signed any cheques. On a separate note, TS asked GP later on why the offer had been made to a rep from the QPR LSA to view agents fees documentation at their meeting, only for this rep to be refused when the said rep took the offer up and made an appointment at the club. GP said that was his fault, he had wanted to be open, however he hadn't realised about the confidentiality of the nature of such documentation relating to player contracts etc.• ABC Loan – GG asked for some clarification regarding the ABC loan and the Board's thoughts regarding it and if whether there had been any recent news relating to the comments made by GP about the possibility of the renegotiating of it? GP responded by saying that he/they “are currently in negotiations with a top bank looking at the possibility of getting it renegotiated at a rate of 6.5%”. GG spoke about the early redemption penalties and asked if GP could give any hints as to the terms, conditions and how long a period we would be talking about regarding a possible renegotiated deal, but GP said he couldn't comment but hoped to have some good news soon. GP stated that he felt the extra 2% (i.e. from 8% to 10%) was the fault of Ross Jones who he understood agreed to the change of rate at the last hour.
• Outstanding Litigation issues – We asked if there were anything outstanding and if so, what are the potential financial risks to the club? GP said there is one, involving Gino Padula. He was offered originally a new 3-year deal, which was in effect a ‘comfort contract' as it had been a gentleman's agreement. Things became confused, he was then offered a 1-year contract, he ended up going to Nottingham Forest and then the club received a letter from Padula's agent threatening to sue the club due to his client not getting a new contract. Talks are undergoing and GP said he/the lawyers are looking into the best way to solve this to the benefit of all parties.
Future of the Club
We then went on to have a fairly lengthy discussion about the future of the club, asking GP about his thoughts on the future and if he could offer some reassurances to the fans that the uncertainty they have seen unfolding in front of them will soon come to an end? GP stated that he is here for the long-term and that he only wants people here that can take the club forward. If, when the time comes for him to leave the club, and it is left in good hands, then he would feel he has done a good job. He spoke about the premiership, and how if we went up it would be worth millions, thus allowing us to pay off the loan and begin to concentrate on the future.
We mentioned the Monte Carlo groups, pointing out that surely at some stage they will be thinking of a way out from QPR and asked if they could pull out at any point? GP didn't really clarify this point but he did say they would not sell the ground unless a new ground were available for QPR. This then led onto a discussion about how the Board have been working behind the scenes at looking for a new ground. He said there is currently a project under proposal, which would mean ‘they' buy the LR site and in return a new ground, £30,000 capacity with spaces for 1500 car parking underground is built. There are a couple of potential sites for such a proposal to go ahead but there are things like planning permission from the council etc required. When asked who ‘they' are GP seemed a little confused and said the people but we have a feeling he meant the Olympics planning committee because he started to talk about how Ken Livingstone has given the ok for such a project.
GG then asked if the supporters, together with the Board, could look into the possibility of getting a covenant type doc drawn up in order to stop the ground from being sold unless the proceeds were to go strictly towards the funding of a new ground, thus ensuring that QPR would never be in a Brighton type scenario. Again, things became patchy though GP did say, “I will guarantee that QPR will never play in a park”!
We commented that the thing at the moment is that with the charge on the ground held by ABC, both the club and the ground are, in effect, protected from a Brighton/Goldstone ground type scenario.
We asked for a brief explanation on the administration/management structure at the club, and if he/the Board would be looking at changing it at any stage in the future. GP said that they are looking at the administration structure on the whole and that he has two people coming from a top London firm to check things out. GG mentioned that he has access to people/companies that may be able to help and GP made the offer to GG for him to see the administration structure. It was formally agreed that this could be done in the near future.
GP praised the staff at the club who are making money for the club and made a pledge that for next year we “will make more money”.
The discussion then led onto supporter volunteers in relation to helping the club with RB saying how numerous fans had offered their services/help in the past on a variety of matters to the previous regime (i.e. David Davies) but had basically been rebuffed on the grounds of health and safety. GP agreed that offers of help from fans should not be refused and GG then mentioned that he has contact with a hospice who themselves organise volunteers for various duties and it was suggested to GP for the club to use this type of model role from the hospice as regards supporter volunteer/help/duties.
GP, on talking about supporter involvement offered us the opportunity for one of us to observe the occasional Board meeting, but bearing in mind the Trust's objectives regarding democratic supporter representation, we said it was an issue we would need to talk about in the future.
We then spoke a little about how in recent history the club overspent on players wages and asked if it were still the intention of the Board to keep to a steady players budget in the future, as well as keeping agents' fees down? GP said we have 32 players on the books (not youth) and went on to speak about a couple of recently signed players', disputing the amounts that have been bandied about relating to both agents' fees for them, along with the amounts which have been suggested they signed on for, giving an example of one new player by saying that he cannot even afford to pay for his own flat.
Ian Holloway was inevitably mentioned at one stage, with TS showing GP a print out of the article that had appeared on the BBC website that very day regarding his proposed new role and asked if it were true. GP, who had not seen the article, read through it briefly and confirmed that the article was the gist of what they were negotiating, saying that basically IH would have control over which players come into the club, whilst Gianni himself would deal with the agent part of any deal/transfer seeing as he is experienced in that particular area.
We asked if he was now happy with IH, which was rather different to a year ago when the Board had considered bringing in a change of manager in Ramon Diaz. GP said he is happy now, that last year for the first 4/5 games he wasn't impressed, but that these days he has a good relationship with IH.
JH retold the tale of how he went down the training ground following the VM defeat 2/3 years ago and how Holloway had spent a good 2/3 hours talking to him.
By now, we were rapidly running out of time and so the final thing we raised was the issue of a fans forum for the near future with PH saying how important the holding of one is in order to allow other fans the chance to speak to Board/Club personnel on a variety of issues. TS produced, and showed, GP a copy of the club's customer charter, pointing out the part about consultation with the fans that includes a part on a commitment to regular fans forums. It was suggested to GP that for the next one, the Board/Club consider hiring a venue on a larger scale than the blue and white bar, thus giving more fans the chance to attend such an event, allowing them the opportunity to speak to club personnel on a variety of playing and non-playing matters. It was also suggested to GP that the Trust could help out as regards the hiring of such a venue, and that on initial research, had discovered that due to it being a mutual community/registered society, we could help to keep the costs of hiring a venue such as Acton hall at a very favourable rate.
GP appeared to be trying to take on board what we were saying, though obviously by this stage he had been given a lot of things to consider, and suggested we talk about this very soon.
The meeting was called to an end at 20.10pm.
Summary
We would like to thank Gianni Paladini for his time. For an initial meeting we felt we managed to get a fair amount of issues discussed with GP, though obviously there is plenty to follow up, with things like the fans forum and Hoops Fund negotiations high up on the list.
We look forward to setting up an appointment in the near future to meet with him and hopefully, other Board members, as whilst Thursday evening's meeting provided us with a good chance to speak with GP on a one-to-one basis, we do feel that at any future meetings, a presence by another Board member/s will be required in order to help share the responsibility of the issues wishing to be raised. Our initial request in the letter sent to GP for a meeting was for it to be with himself and Gualtiero Trucco, seeing as Gualtiero is at the moment the interim Chair.
The new ground discussion was interesting and the Trust will be in contact with the local council in the near future in order to re-establish its links with them.
http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/main/trustclubmeetsep2005.htm%20/

SEPTEMBER 2005
9th September
Mark Devlin's Response To Our Meeting ReportThanks for giving me the opportunity to reply to some of the points made at your meeting, particularly those relating to me directly. I have no wish to get into an argument, as I have now accepted, with much regret, that I cannot play my part in QPR's future, as an employee and I must move on. I did not plan to make any comment on my departure, but I feel I must respond to some of the points made.
Firstly, my salary (and I can provide you with the relevant paperwork if you wish) from the start of my appointment until May 31 of this year was £80K per annum. In addition I received £10,000 car allowance per annum, and I was able to claim business mileage at the rate of 25p per mile. In June 2005 my basic salary was increased to £90K. This was still a lot less than the previous CEO and I felt it was a fair deal for everyone. I do not know why Gianni seems to have been unaware of my salary structure. In fact, despite several requests for a confirmation of my appointment and salary, I took my position up without a confirmation letter, after Gianni told me I could trust him. 'Just start as soon as possible' was the request I received from him.
I received a call from Henkel, owners of the Sellotape brand, in April of this year. It was a late call, given that the replica shirts were already well on the way to being manufactured. I was told that the company were considering using one of three clubs as part of their marketing mix and would we be interested. I informed all the Directors of this opportunity, but it was far from certain we would gain the business. Sellotape were also prepared to invest in their sponsorship and spend additional monies at the Club. I even felt, given my knowledge of Henkel's sports sponsorships, that they could even develop into a possible main sponsor sometime in the future. Mark Austin and I made a presentation to the team at Henkel and we were all genuinely pleased when we were selected and that Sellotape was the brand chosen. The fee was discussed and all felt it was acceptable and most welcome additional revenue. At no time did any Director, or anyone from Monaco, suggest that they had alternatives who would pay more.
I received a call from David Davies, at the FA, the day prior to the Charlton friendly. He explained that the Greek FA had contacted him about a Greek businessman who had expressed an interest in investing in an English club, and was particularly interested in QPR. I took his details and spoke to him. I then contacted the Chairman (as I thought CEO's were supposed to do) to tell him of the conversation, only to find out that the someone had tried to contact Bill at his main business the previous Friday and Bill, on hearing the fellow's name realised it was the same person. Bill told me that there wasn't a great deal to discuss but, as a matter of courtesy, I should invite him as a guest to the Charlton game and he would have chat with him prior to the match. The meeting took place up in my office and I was present. It was a very affable, friendly meeting, lasting around 20 minutes. They clearly had some aged financial information about the Club and Bill told them so, after spelling out his vision for the Club's future. Bill also made clear that, to the best of his knowledge, no shareholders were looking to sell. No offers were made or discussed. Gianni came up to my office halfway through the meeting, but declined to join us despite Bill beckoning him in. In no way was I trying to keep Gianni 'out of it', I simply reported the phone call to the Chairman and arranged the brief meeting. If Bill had felt there was any more substance to the conversation he would have taken it further with the other Board members.
As far as reporting is concerned, I will say that in terms of providing regular financial reports via e-mail, directly to the Monaco based investors, we were not as efficient as we could have been. There were some mitigating reasons, but I accept that broad criticism. However, there was always a financial update, including cashflows, included in the Board packs distributed at Board meetings. Gianni chose, in his initial role as consultant, not to attend every Board meeting, on occasions choosing to accompany Antonio Caliendo into London as an alternative. We did our best to keep everyone up to date with our financial situation and maybe the detail did not get through to everyone. Gianni's e-mail set up did not allow us to send attachments and his mailbox was frequently full. I understand that Gianni believed I kept Bill Power more up to speed than I did him and he is probably right in that viewpoint, but for no reason other than I would speak to Bill more frequently and, he was the Chairman after all.
Lastly, season ticket prices were set and agreed by all the Board. Given the previous financial result, I was asked to generate more income into the Club and season ticket price increases were part of that plan. I know many people feel they were too severe, but we simply had to generate substantially more funds to try to keep the Club afloat and the decision was made with the Clubs best interests at heart. In hindsight, as I have already stated, I feel we got the kids prices wrong and I had hoped to do something about this in the future. The season ticket price increases were not discussed with any of the Supporters Groups, something I feel the Club needs to learn from in the future.
Belatedly, I would like to wish everyone at QPR all the very best in the future.The staff, both playing and non-playing, have worked hard to get the Club back into decent shape and the fans deserve some success. I look forward, albeit with a little sadness, to taking my place back amongst the supporters.
Regards,
Mark Devlin 8th September
http://www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/05setpoct.html


LSA Meeting with Club Representatives on Monday 5 SeptemberPresent: Gianni Paladini, Harold Winton, Stephen Paladini, Antonio Caliendo (for the last 15 minutes), Sylvia Dallibar, Victor Stevenson, Spencer Schwartz, Steve Rapjohns, Paul Finney, Steve Russell, Paul Fisher, Joe English. Minutes taken on behalf of the LSA by Julia Hill.
It was agreed by all present that the incidents that took place at the Sheffield United game would not be discussed or reported on because there is an ongoing police investigation.
Bill Power and Mark DevlinThe main reason for the meeting was to discuss the recent upheaval at Board level and to find out what this means for the Club.
GP said that he and Bill Power are still friends and speak every day, but there have been problems at Rangers for the last 4-5 months and things had to change. Financial information should have been presented to the Board on a monthly basis but was not and when the Monte Carlo people would ring up GP to ask how much money the Club had in the bank, he could not tell them ? GP also had to look after his own money that he had invested: “I am not a millionaire and I had to re-mortgage one of my properties to buy into QPR. If I see something wrong I have to act. I don’t have enough money to ignore it.”
A lot of decisions had been made without consulting Board Members properly, for example, GP only found out about the Sellotape sponsorship after the deal was done and we should have got much more than £25k from such a big Company.
GP also said he had been told Mark Devlin’s salary was £70k a year but he found out recently that this had been increased to £100k plus a generous car allowance. When National Insurance etc was taken into account, the total cost to the Club of employing Mark Devlin had risen to approx £150k a year.
The last straw was the AEK Athens business. According to GP the Greeks had approached the FA and asked whether there were any English clubs they might be able to buy into or take over. The FA had sent them along to Rangers. GP said he knew nothing about this until he accidentally walked into a meeting at Loftus Road between the Greeks, Bill Power and Mark Devlin and that he was furious at not having been informed.
GP said he then met with Bill Power and told him he was too soft and that it would be better for him to have a break. Bill is still a Director, but the Board had democratically decided to have a different Chairman. Gualtiero Trucco is doing the job temporarily and Harold Winton said that GP, with Kevin McGrath’s support, is going to become the new QPR Chairman.
GP said that he had not sacked Mark Devlin. he had made the position of Chief Executive redundant. He also said that Chief Executives are the biggest scroungers in the world of football. What is needed at QPR is a Club Secretary, to deal with contracts and the League and so on, a Manager of the football team, a Commercial Manager to bring in money and an Accountant. The different departments at the Club will meet every week and then one person will report to GP.
A question was asked about the expense of redundancy payments and GP said if you worried about that too much you would never get rid of anybody.
Finances, Shares and The GroundTwo main statements from GP:
“I guarantee I will not sell the ground.”
“I guarantee I will not dilute the shares.”
The ground is worth £20-22m. If we sold it, we would have to pay £10.4m to ABC (the £10m that we borrowed from them plus a penalty of £400k for early repayment). That would leave us with £10m, which will not pay for a ground and anyone who is saying that they can promise Rangers a new ground at the moment is talking rubbish.
This Thursday GP is going to meet some bankers to try and borrow money at an interest rate of 6% in order to pay off ABC. If he is successful that would save QPR £400k a year.
GP said that in January this year he and the Monte Carlo people had to put more money in to keep the Club going to the end of the season. LSA reps queried this and said surely that money had been put in by Bill Power and Kevin McGrath. GP said no, the money came from himself and Monte Carlo.
In answer to a question about the major shareholders, GP said that he and the Monte Carlo people between them have 45%. Before doing the deal with Chris Wright, Bill Power had owned 4% and Chris Wright had owned 10% in his own name and a further 4% in a family trust. HW and GP said they believed Bill Power had done a deal with Wright for all of his shares and therefore now owns a total of 18%.
GP said that Antonio Caliendo is neither a shareholder nor a member of either Monaco consortium. In answer to a question about why the Club crest and pictures of Loftus Road appear under “Services” on the website http://www.worldchampiosclub.com/ GP said it is because Caliendo’s son is a Formula 3 racing driver and has agreed to have the QPR crest on the side of his car every time he races in this country.
Milwaukee Wave no longer have any connection with QPR and Tim Krause sold his shares to Dave Morris.
GP was asked whether he still takes wages from QPR now he is a Director and he said yes. His wages are about £60k a year of which he sees £36k after tax.
Ugo Ukah is on a low wage, and GP gave detailed re-assurances that with the signing of Richard Langley we have not broken the wage structure.
A Member asked whether agents have been given sell-on clauses for any of our players. GP said they have not and any money raised from selling players will go to the Club.
GP said that he has done deals to bring three players to the Club and the fees paid to agents have been very low as follows:
Lee Cook - £15k over two years
Georges Santos - £6k over three years
Dominic Shimmin - £10k
He said if necessary he is willing to authorise Sheila Marson, the Cub Secretary, to show us the paperwork.
Six Clubs were after Ian Evatt. We paid £175k for Evatt and we paid Mel Eves £3k to represent QPR in the negotiations. The alternative was to go through Evatt’s own agent and then we would have had to have paid a lot more.
A Member asked why we are considering offering Ian Holloway a longer contract when he has only just signed one for three years. GP said that Ian Holloway wants another two years on his contract.
Season TicketsWe have sold about 8,300 tickets and have made £158k more from season ticket sales than we did last season.
A Member asked GP why he thought crowds were down this season and he replied that it was because of the ticket prices. GP was adamant that it was not a Board decision to put up the prices.
GP asked whether it was true that Mark Devlin had told the LSA about the extent of the price hikes in advance. All the Members present said no, this was not true.
HW said he had wanted to keep last year’s prices for the 2,000-odd restricted view seats in the ground. GP said that he has asked HW to help him with ticket price decisions in the future.
A member said that fans are coming out of games saying that they’ve paid £150 more for their season tickets and are having to watch tripe. GP said he hoped the standard of football would improve once key players returned from injury.
The Stability and Future of the ClubGP is seeking to reassure fans that above all he wants QPR to be stable and to have a strong team that plays good football. He said he has been at the Club for 18 months now and has worked for Rangers virtually every day. He said he is full of enthusiasm for the Club and loves spending time with Ian Holloway and the players.
A lot of inaccurate information has appeared in the press. He has never owned a nightclub and although he played for Naples for a long time he never played for Juventus or the Italian national side.
On being asked about his attempt to take over Port Vale, he said that he decided to retire from football and go and live in Lanzarote where he has a house and a boat, but he got bored and came back to this country with the ambition to take over a football club and show how well he could run it and bring players in without spending billions of pounds. He looked at Port Vale first and after that fell through he started to look at QPR. A Member asked whether it was true that three months ago GP’s accountant, former QPR Board member Azeem Malik, had asked on GP’s behalf to see the books at Stoke City with a view to taking over that Club. GP said this was completely untrue.
His first QPR game was away at Wycombe (draw, very windy conditions that day) Because of the type of players he had represented as an agent, he had never watched a game at that level before and he was appalled by the standard of football but struck up a great friendship with Bill Power that day. Then he saw us draw 1-1 with Luton at home and was amazed by the atmosphere and how packed the ground was.
Soon after the Luton game he invested £650k in QPR and gave up his FIFA agent’s licence. Three days later Ross Jones told him that all his money had been spent and asked him to give his shares to some Americans who wanted to borrow £14m and take over the Club. GP refused and threatened to go to the press.
Members pointed out that fans have been scared by recent events. Some reports in the press have made matters worse and speculation on the messageboards has been intense. This would not have happened to the extent it did if the Club had put out clear and timely statements. GP said he had been very busy with the police but that Bill Power had tried to reassure fans with his statement. GP said he would use the programme to try and reassure fans further. He said that Bill Power and Kevin McGrath are both behind him – Bill was not forced to make his statement - and now he has the chance to run the Club better.
GP said he wants the Club to be open to scrutiny. He would like to meet the LSA every month to answer questions and find out what the fans think and how they judge his progress. He would like to invite an LSA rep to attend Board meetings occasionally as an observer.
Other IssuesA Member asked why we need four first team Coaches at Rangers. GP said that Tony Roberts only works part-time, Gary Penrice is doubling up as Chief Scout, Tim Breacker is the Assistant Manager and Gary Waddock is in charge of the reserves and the elite development group of young players.
A question was asked about the forthcoming Palace game when it is rumoured that QPR fans will be charged £35 for tickets. GP did not know about this but said he would look into it.
A Member wanted to know whether Chris Wright could be stripped of his life Vice Presidency. GP said he did not know the answer as it was Bill Power who had done the shares deal with Wright.
GP said the Club would open the School End to home supporters this season if there was sufficient demand would consider special deals to attract new fans.
A Member pointed out that when you are approaching Loftus Road from the direction of Bloemfontein Road, the skyline is dominated by the School End stand and asked whether something identifying it as QPR’s ground and promoting the Club could be painted or fixed on the back of the stand. GP said he would investigate.
The Meeting lasted for well over two hours and as usual we ran out of time. The last one was in February and obviously much has transpired since then. We welcomed the offer of more regular Meetings.The LSA Committee
http://www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/05setpoct.html

FRom LSA - AUGUST 2005
19th August
'R's Corridors Of Uncertainty' - Dave McIntyre In The Local Gazette. A bitter power struggle at QPR will come to a head at a Board meeting on Wednesday. Just 14 months after Bill Power and major shareholder Gianni Paladini, combined to oust the previous Board - after which Power was installed as Chairman, the two will lock horns next week following a series of disagreements.Power, a lifelong supporter who grew up on the White City Estate, wants to increase his shareholding in the Club, but so do the Monaco based group of investors Paladini helped bring on board. Paladini is also said to want major changes behind the scenes, although he has refused to comment on suggestions that he is keen to replace Mark Devlin and other Club officials. It comes after Paladini was allegedly threatened by an armed gang before the game against Sheffield United on Saturday, leading to the arrests of four men including Dave Morris - a shareholder who paid for the signing of Arthur Gnohere and agreed to fund deals for Lee Camp and Andrew Davies. As well as the shock of last weekends events, there is also deep frustration among the top brass at the Club at the timing because Wednesday's showdown has been on the cards for weeks. Directors want to confront Paladini about a number of issues, including fees paid to Agents - particularly in the case of Ian Evatt's recent transfer from Chesterfield.Divisions run so deep, there is even disagreement over whether Morris, 49, was actually a Director. The decision to refer to him as one in the match programme caused a row.The cost of maintenance work at the Club's new Training Ground is also a concern and a recent meeting with businessmen who helped Greek side AEK Athens deal with financial problems also resulted in a bust up ! One side claims it amounted to a takeover bid, the other insists it was no more than a polite meeting and a friendly farewell once it was clear no shares were for sale. There are other issues causing major friction. It now looks likely that ar least one out of Power, Paladini and Devlin is on the way out. Paladini insists he has no intention of standing down and is angry at the criticism of him from within. "I just don't understand all this" he said yesterday, "For a start, all this stuff about Agent's fees is ridiculous, "Just because I used to be an Agent myself does not mean I can wave a magic wand and we don't have to deal with Agents. You have to pay fees to Agents to get players, that's the way it goes. And I didn't deal with things like Agents fees alone, it was always up to Mark and Bill." Paladini said that the two deals in which he did have sole control over negotiations, were for defenders Ugo Ukah and Mauro Milanese, which resulted in no fee being paid to an Agent at all. He said, "Why all the focus on the Evatt deal ? Ukah and Milanese came from Italy and I sorted that out and we paid zero to Agents, so I don't think all this is fair. Why are these things being said ? And why no mention of Dominic Shimmin ? He's going to be worth a lot of money and we got him for £10,000. Paladini added, "I will not leave, I know this Club is going in the right direction and that I work hard with Ian Holloway. I'm not into politics, I'm a football man and I work to get good players for QPR from early in the morning until eight or nine at night." He would not comment on possible changes behind the scenes and claimed he and Bill Power remain friends. "I love Bill but there are things that need to be discussed and I feel I need answers."In another development, Arab businessman Haleem Kherallah said last night that he plans to make Paladini an offer for his shares. Kherallah, who made several attempts to buy a stake in the Club before Paladini eventually did, said, "I don't know whether Gianni will want to sell but I am ready and waiting. When he bought shares, I wished the Club good luck and said I'd still be here if they needed me in the future. I will certainly make an offer. We've made a great start to the Season on the pitch and can't afford instability off it. I know the Club and can come straight in and work with people like Bill Power, no problem, we'll have to wait and see what happens. The Board obviously have issues to resolve and we'll take it from there."Steve Russell


SEPTEMBER 2003
14th SeptemberQPR LSA MEETING WITH CLUB - Tuesday 9th September Present - David Davies, Nick Blackburn, Jerry Lonsdale (Operations Director), Terry Wise (Goldrange), Gary Waddock (Centre of Excellence Director), Steve Russell, Steve Rapjohns, Sylvia Dallibar, Vic Stevenson, Albert Weight, Dave Cox, Paul Fischer and Paul Finney. As you can see from some of those that were present, the meeting was slightly different than normal. The LSA in previous meetings had voiced their grievances about the stewarding at Rangers particularly over the fact many could not speak English. The club took this on board and brought down Terry Wise from Goldrange who was able to answer our questions over such stewarding matters. Gary Waddock was also present because as many of you know the LSA are raising matters from the youth set up and we wanted to see what extra things we could do to help. Goldrange - The LSA raised the issue to Terry that many stewards down at Rangers are unable to speak conversational English. We highlighted the fact that should anything serious happen (God forbid it does), the stewards would not know how to deal with many panic stricken R’s fans. Terry justified this by stating that the stewarding market attracts 90% immigrant labour. He stated that since 1988 when Goldrange started to do stewarding at football games, there has been a change of 10% on what type of people wanting to steward. Terry added that stewards are now essentially 90% non-white which was very different to when they first started. The LSA highlighted that the fact that they are non-white was not the problem as we have a very diverse support base it was the simple fact that many stewards did not have a command of the English language and like we said should a serious situation occur we would have a major problem. Terry added that there is an interviewing process where potential stewards have to have a grasp of the English language. The LSA added why are so many non-English speaking stewards slipping through the net. Terry stated that there has been a huge change in stewarding over the years and we don’t have the ‘family stewards’ anymore who knew everyone. Terry accepted that people might slip through the net but added that if someone does, they would soon be found out and dealt with. He gave an example of when a local licensing man from the council was doing his ‘rounds’ and found a steward could not speak English. The steward was subsequently taken off site. Now all stewards apparently when they check into their supervisor have to have a conversation with their supervisor. Terry added that if an R’s fan did have a problem with a steward then they should take a note of their number and inform a steward supervisor wearing a white jacket. This conversation went on for a good while and the club acknowledged there was a problem. Terry assured us that any problems would be dealt with and invited 2 of the LSA committee to the Control Room to watch how a match operation works, on any home game to see how potential problems are dealt with by both Stewards and Police. However, the LSA can only reiterate that if anyone does have a problem with a steward please take their number and the matter will hopefully be dealt with by their superiors. Youth Set Up - Our first point with Gary Waddock present was we wanted to know why parts of the youth set up were scrapped, when at our last meeting we were assumed nothing would change. The club categorically denied saying that any such undertaking was given, but we assured them we understood nothing would change. Both parties agreed to differ on this point. Gary stated he supported the change and felt they were overdue. He went on to say the initial signs were that the structure was producing positive results and sited Sunday’s clean sweep of Portsmouth as an example. He then went on to say how pleased he was with the LSA’s commitment to raising funds for the youth set up. He outlined how much it would be to sponsor a youth team and the LSA have made it our aim to sponsor one of the youth sides. Below is how much it would cost to sponsor a team for a season - Under 10’s- 3k Under 12’s- 3k Under 14’s- 7k Under 15’s- 7k Under 17’s- 7k The LSA outlined to Gary how much we have done already in terms of raising money like receiving £150 for Ty Forbes’s signed shirt from O’Donoghues on the Goldhawk Road. Gary really wants us to work closely with him on fundraising initiatives. The club asked us to outline the initiatives that would be undertaking, and the committee agreed to do this as early as possible. One issue, which comes up time and time again at our meetings, is QPR’s inability to recruit potential players from the local area. Gary stated he now has 12 scouts flooding the local area. He stated that although we have lost 40 players, the one we do have are of a very good quality and they are now effectively being fast tracked to potential first team football. Gary added that if players want to make it now at Rangers they would have to work their socks off. The LSA also asked Gary if he had replied to a letter which the LSA had received from a football coach in America called Tony Corbett with regards to bringing in new players from the States. Gary stated he did write back but has had no reply. Catering - The LSA wanted to know why the price of a pint had gone up by 50 pence. The LSA added that this id driving punters away as could be seen at the Members bar for example after the last home game. The LSA also wanted to know why the pies have been so piping hot in recent games. The club stated they would look into both matters and get back to us. They also said they would bring the catering manager to our next meeting so we could voice our grievances. Reduction On Season Ticket - One LSA member wanted to know why he had not received a reduction on his OAP season ticket despite the fact that he had introduced 2 new members. The club said they would look into the matter and get back to the relevant person. Luton Away Tickets - On the morning the day before the meeting I rung the box office to ask what the deal was with Luton tickets. I was informed that they went on sale to season ticket holders via postal application only. I added that there was no mention of this on either the website or in the last programme. However, the lady at the box office assured me they had told the programme organiser to put it in. But as you all know it wasn’t and I found out that the programme organiser had been ill. I brought this to the attention of the club and asked them they should have contingency plans put in to avoid such a situation considering the game was next week. The club acknowledged this and stated they would look into it. Court Case Against R’s Fans - As many of you know the club is taking 3 fans to court over the leakage of a document on a website. The LSA asked how much the club are spending on the court case and whether it was approved at board level. Davies stated he contacted his Chairman and with the case still going on they couldn’t say much more. However, the court case has now been completed and the club has been awarded costs against one of the supporters. Potential Investment - The club informed us that David Thorne is still about and we should know some more in a couple of weeks. On hearing this we asked is there enough money for us to continue to the end of the season. The club said there wasn’t which we found extremely worrying. We added why the club didn’t make this cash flow problem public at the last EGM. Sale of Richard Langley - The club informed us he was not sold above Holloway’s head. It was ultimately Holloway who decided whether Langley should be sold. Ian considered a number of factors; these included the length of time left on his contract, his availability for Jamaican Internationals, and whether the squad would be stronger by bringing in two or three more players for the same money. Fulham - They are definitely going back to Craven Cottage subject to permission from the local authority. With them going back, there will obviously be the opportunity for another team to come in which the club are looking into. Wasps - The club informed us if that if Fulham return to the Cottage, Wasps could either come back next season or exercise an option to stay one more season at Wycombe. Davies explained that if QPR could find no other partner to share the ground Wasps would then have no choice but to return or pay QPR compensation. Reason Why Shittu Was So Incensed At Colchester - Many R’s fans would have seen big Dan get really wound up at Colchester. The reason for it was their player Karl Duguid made gorilla noises at Dan. Many R’s fans as well as Nick Blackburn who subsequently went straight after the match to inform the Colchester manager saw this. Their manager informed Blackburn that sort of stuff would not be tolerated in his club. Let’s hope Colchester punishes Duguid because this kind of stuff should not be tolerated. Young R’s Fan Attacked at Colchester - Steve Russell showed the club an email he had received from the mother of a 14-year-old R’s fan who was attacked in the toilets in the mixed area at Colchester. The mother was obviously very distressed not just with her son getting punched but also at the fact that Colchester’s stewards did not help her out. QPR as a result have offered to take the boy to see all the players and get a few autographs, which the LSA fully supports. Dave Cox http://www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/03augsep.htm


4th AugustDave McIntyre In The Bush Gazette On Friday Dave wrote about Holloway facing the prospect of not being able to sign players unless the proposed £2million investment by David Thorne can be salvaged. Thorne was tipped to become the largest shareholder in QPR Holdings but pulled out of the deal at the weekend, citing opposition from within the Club as his reason. The main source of discontent over the Thorne deal has been from Harold Winton, a Board member who -along with his sons Matt and Alex -funded the signings of Bircham, Doudou and Dan Shittu. Chief Executive David Davies was said to be working furiously to overcome the division this week, although, as of yesterday (Thursday) the Wintons insisted that they had had no contact with either Davies or Thorne. "We've had no contact at all, so how they are meant to be ironing out these problems, we've no idea" Matt Winton said. We like David Thorne, but there are issues surrounding his bid that we want clarification on and have not received any answers. "This is the future of the Club we're talking about and we want to be convinced that the club isn't being dragged further into debt and its liabilities increased. We have written to David Davies outlining our concerns and are awaiting a response" Davies confirmed that although cash has been earmarked for loan deals, other signings will not be possible without the kind of investment Thorne has pledged. Steve Russell

http://www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/03augsep.htm

JULY 2003

8th JulyLSA Meeting With The Club Present - Victor Stevenson, Paul Finney, Steve Russell, Steve Rapjohns, Albert, Sylvia Dallibar, Dave Cox and Joe English. On Monday night, the LSA had a meeting with the club to discuss a range of topics but mainly to see what developments were taking place with regards to new owners taking over the club. Below is what was covered at the meeting. Haleem Kherlah - The club stated that the offer was only partial as it involved part cash and part loan. The club continually stated that by rejecting the bid they were doing what was in the best interests of the club and NOT what was best for them as Kherlah as stated in the local newspapers. The club made investigations into Kherlah’s past and found he was a bit of a ‘loose canon’ and his business practices had a lot to be desired. When the club put it to him would his bid be a major take over he never answered and that his why the club did not do business with him. David Thorne - The deal for David Thorne to take over has nearly been completed. The club stated it is the best offer to take the club forward. The bid, which contains substantial equity, has only a small charge on the ground, which runs from October to December. The bid will provide some funding. Blackburn admitted the club can make mistakes but they do what is best for the club and this deal will clear out Chris’s share. Loan - The club categorically denied there is no £2 million loan. New Director - The club informed us that a man called Bill Power is a new director at the club. Nick Blackburn invited Bill, who was from the White City estate, to the board. Bill last season offered to help Rangers sign Lee Cook. By joining the board Bill has invested 200k into the club, which as the club put it was ‘dead money.’ Money From The Play Offs - The club informed us that Rangers have made around 500k from the Play Offs. They have received around 300k so far and they will receive the extra 200k once the league has sorted out a couple of things with the Millennium stadium. Ron Noades - The club categorically stated that Rangers have NOT heard from him. But if they did, they would have to consider it like any offer as the short-term future of Rangers has to be protected. With Brentford leaving Griffin Park after this season there might be the chance they would like to ground share with us. Wasps - If they want to return to Loftus Road they have an obligation to. However Rangers know they are enjoying up it there because crowds are up and Wycombe is a more of a rugby ground than Loftus Road. Fulham - Fulham are obviously here this season. But for next season Rangers don’t know, as Fulham have not contacted them. However, Rangers admitted that they could really do with Fulham being here for a longer period of time. Any Offer For The Club - The club stated once again that any offer for the club would be considered, as they have to do the best for Rangers. Davies used the word ‘prudent’ to describe the situation. Youth Team To Be Scrapped? - There has been a lot of talk recently with regards to the youth team being scrapped. The club admitted the topic is a very sensitive issue as the club know that it is the foundation of the club. The club will discuss the issue once again at the next board meeting. The club pointed out that they would discuss the pros and cons. We obviously raised the point that Alec Stock back in the 60’s wanted to play one game with just home grown talent but was not allowed to by the league. The club pointed out that football is completely different to that in the 60’s when all players had a value regardless of whether or not the player was out of contract as the player was still registered to the club. The club added that the club could not afford to pay for a player to be brought up through the club only to see him leave on a Bosman. By scrapping the youth team, would save the club £750k. The club went on to say that this season we would have an Under 17 and Under 19’s team. Training Ground - The club stated that at the moment all levels of football at Rangers would still be at Twyford. Ian Stewart - The LSA raised the issue with the club that at a past meeting we were showed a booklet, which showed that Ian Stewart was a Rangers scout in Northern Ireland. However, towards the end of the season Ian Stewart was seen in the bar at Rangers by some LSA committee members and asked him about his scouting role for the club. Ian said he wasn’t a scout. We informed the club about this but Blackburn stated said he was and he had personally seen him bring someone down to the training ground. Binatone - The club stated that if the club had a season like last we would make 150k from the sponsorship. The basic sponsorship sum is considerably higher than what we got from JD Sports, which was only going to be short term as it was to help launch their new shop in Shepherd’s Bush. Milwaukee Wave - The LSA raised the point that nothing apart from Dou Dou going over there has been done with Milwaukee Wave. The club informed us the partnership was obviously in its early days but there is an under 15’s team coming over to play in a tournament and it is the ‘engagement party’ as Davies put it. Goldrange - The LSA raised the issue over the poor stewarding at Rangers this season. The LSA added that many of the stewards can’t talk English and this doesn’t help especially if an evacuation of the ground would be needed. The club stated that the stewards would have had to prove to Goldrange they could speak English when they first signed up. Rangers added that with cost saving we pay virtually the minimum rate to have the stewards. We can’t recruit our own stewards so we are virtually forced to have Goldrange. The club added that Rangers have to face a charge at the FA with crowd problems at the Crewe game. The club know it’s a minority who cause us problems every now again and we need to stamp it out. Loan - The club stated the loan couldn’t be renogiated. Season Tickets - The club informed us that season tickets are up to 7,055 and hopefully they will be printed by the end of the week. Richard Langley - The club felt it would have been better for Richard to stay and have pre-season with the club. However, Richard wanted to go to Jamaica and play international football and the club due to Fifa rules have to accept this. By playing for Jamaica now means that Richard has signed himself up to be away from Rangers for 4 weekends during the season. So lets hope he won’t miss some real important games. Clarke Carlisle - Clarke has stated that if the club definitely go up this season he will sign a contract with us. Eric Sabin, Martin Rowlands & Jamie Cuerton - Eric has had his MRI scan and he will sign shortly. The club knows he hasn’t scored many goals but Holloway reckons his history with strikers he can get the best out of him. Martin is slightly different. He feels fine but Rangers need to know his break has healed perfectly before we sign him. With Jamie we will NOT sign him as he has gone to a Korean club for 5k a week. Publicity - The LSA asked why the club did not reply to Mark Flack’s offer to give Rangers free publicity in a student magazine he publishes to all universities all over the country. The LSA have continually brought this up at meetings and the club said they would look into it. We added that Jim Frayling never replied to Mark’s emails. The club said they would look into it and would give Mark a call. The LSA also raised a point how the club could use Ray Garret some more. However, the club stated they use Ray quite a lot. Scratch Cards - At the last meeting the LSA raised the point that the club could use scratch cards to raise money for the club. The club stated they have looked into using scratch cards based on a scheme used at Burnley. They will be around the ground and there will be cash prizes and all the profits will go back into Rangers. It is likely to be run by the Supporters Club. Play Off Shirt - The LSA raised the point that they were nothing like the 1967 shirt and the price of the shirt. The club stated that no one had complained about the design of the shirt and the reason it was so expensive it is effectively a limited edition shirt. Reserve Games - At a previous meeting, the LSA raised the idea that the club could run a mini bus to reserve games from Loftus Road. The club did advertise it on the web but they said they would look into it again and potentially have a couple of trials at the start of the season. Lack Of PR On The Website For The LSA End Of Season Tournament - The LSA raised the issue that the tournament which we ran to raise money for the club was not given any publicity on the QPR Official website. The club stated that this would be looked into and said maybe it was because a sponsor’s tournament the day before had to be cancelled due to the Oldham game being played that week. Web Cameras - A LSA member wanted us to ask about web cams at Rangers. The club stated there are web cams at the training ground. A Day Where We Can See Rangers Train - A long, long, long, long, long time ago it was raised that the club stated there would be an afternoon where supporters could watch the players train. As we have NOT heard anything since we raised it with the club who said they would ask Holloway and it would probably be at the start of the week when the players are not doing tactical practice for the up and coming game. Potential Youth Players - One LSA member asked us how potential players of around 14 years of age who play at a good standard could get a trial at Rangers. The club stated they would have to write to Bobby Ross. Stephen Kelly and Tommy Williams - A decision on whether or not they will come to Rangers will be made in August. Future Internationals - There is a good chance that Australia or New Zealand will use Loftus Road as their European ‘home’ ground and there is a chance there might be a game in September. David Thorne who is set to take over Rangers is the Australian who sorts out Australian games in this country. I have tried to put down everything, which was said at the meeting. We have obviously arranged another meeting for 6 weeks time. QPR Then, Now and Always. Dave Cox 6th JulyBush Gazette - Friday 4th July, By Dave McIntyre Dave has written some very interesting articles recently and the latest last Friday says that David Thorne is set to join the Rangers Board. He will make an immediate investment of £400,000 and another £600,000 within 12 months which will be exchanged for shares. This is expected to be followed by further cash injections bringing Thorne's total investment to around £2million. Thorne's rival bidder, Haleem Kherallah, has accused the Club's Board of accepting Thorne's offer to hang onto their positions. But having publicly slated Thorne's offer, Kherallah was in a more conciliatory mood after learning it will now almost certainly go through. "I hope it turns out to be the best thing for the Club, money being invested into QPR is a good thing and we should all welcome it. I just hope that this deal doesn't increase the Club's liabilities and make it more vulnerable. My main concern is that people do not lose sight of the main issue facing QPR, its the £10million loan secured against the Ground. This has got to be renegotiated at a better rate for the Club, that is absolutely essential -more important than anything. I wanted to put my money in and also transfer the loan so the Club isn't liable and I have said what I felt about what will happen if these issues aren't addressed, but I think now we should all get behind the Club and the team."
http://www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/03junejuly.htm