warts and all?

this is my england has more than once articulated deep dissatisfaction with goings on behind the scenes at QPR, the football club I've followed since I was a nipper.

Of course I'm pleased to see the Superhoops about to ply their trade back in the Premier League after an absence of fifteen long, long years, during which I've travelled all over the back roads of the English game, having been to away games  against the likes of Wycombe Wanderers, Port Vale, Grimsby Town, Plymouth Argyle, Barnsley, Swindon Town, Chesterfield, Rushden & Diamonds and Scunthorpe United.

Promotion, though very welcome, is not enough to dispel feelings of real antipathy towards some of the club's owners and toward its bungling Chairman, Gianni Paladini - crass, vulgar men who treat long-suffering fans with barely disguised contempt. 

Now, it seems that the owners in question, Messrs. Briatore and Ecclestone, will be selling shares in the club to Malaysia's Tony Fernandes, the team principal of Formula 1's Team Lotus who was  also responsible for reviving the fortunes of a previously ailing airline. It seems, according to recent reports, that Fernandes will end up with a 51% stake in the club, leaving Ecclestone and Briatore with the smallest chunk of equity, in third place behind Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian-born multi-billionaire steel magnate. Surely it is to be  hoped that the conclusion of this transaction will finally spell the end of Mr. Paladini's time at the club. Paladini was to blame for the QPR spending the back end of last season under a cloud of suspicion over an apparently illegal player transfer. The great British media crowed endlessly about the possibility of a points deduction large enough to cost the club the promotion that manager Neil Warnock and the team had worked so hard for.

For me, it beggars belief that Paladini kept his position when it became apparent that it was his recklessly negligent behaviour that led to the club being dragged before an FA hearing. Although no points were deducted, the matter was resolved in farcical circumstances, with supporters only hearing the good news on the morning of the final game of the 2010-11 season. A hefty smack on the wrist was administered, however, in the form of a fine of over £800,000. It is my understanding that this fine was paid by the club and not from the pocket of the man responsible for the debacle. I think it's safe to assume  that I'd be booted from my job if I cost my employer's company (which turns over a lot more than QPR F.C., by the way) £800,000 and weeks of bad publicity.

So, the prospect of a new era of potentially better management of the club is to be welcomed. 

Just as that prospect is looking a distinct possibility, it now seems we may get a closer-than-ever look at the club's inner workings. It appears that for the last few years, a documentary film crew has been getting privileged access to the people responsible for the crazily rapid turnover of team managers and all the other headline-grabbing madness that has defined QPR in recent times. Despite suggestions on some Rangers messageboards that the resulting film may have been crafted to cast Mittal's man on the board (his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia) in a favourable light, I'm looking forward to any new insights that the documentary may offer.

Here's the trailer: