by Terry Lovell
The documents accepting the offer from Briatore and Ecclestone were signed by both parties on Saturday, 1 September 2007, shortly before the start of the home match against Southampton, which QPR lost 3-0. Briatore, through his company Sarita Capital Investments Inc, and Ecclestone, as an individual investor, acquired a 69.50 per cent stake in QPR Holdings for £13.70 million. A loan of £5 million was also agreed – £4.25 million from Sarita and £750,000 from Ecclestone – partly to buy new players and the rest to cover outstanding debts. Their joint shareholding was subsequently increased to 95 per cent.
With Paladini continuing as club chairman, Alejandro Agag, a Spanish businessman well connected financially and politically, and a long-standing associate of Briatore and Ecclestone, became chairman of QPR Holdings Ltd, and Bruno Michel, organiser of the Asia GP2 series and a senior figure in Briatore’s FBB management company, a director of QPR Holdings Ltd. Ecclestone declined to become a director. He has neither the time nor the interest in football. His main goal is a fat bottom line.
But it was his acquaintance with the Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal which led to the world’s sixth richest man investing in QPR. In 2004 Mittal paid £70 million for Ecclestone’s 12-bedroomed mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens, at that time described as the most expensive house in London. With a personal fortune of £27.7 billion, Mittal bought a 20 per cent stake in QPR for £200,000, largely at the behest of his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, a keen soccer fan. Bhatia was subsequently appointed vice-chairman of QPR Holdings, of which, in February 2008, Briatore replaced Agag, now managing director, as chairman.
When the documents were finally signed, Paladini said he was ‘so relieved. I say to myself, “If I drop dead now at least I have kept my promise that I would not take the club into administration”, which was my only concern. I am very, very proud of what I have done in the circumstances.’
But Paladini claims that the takeover led to a whispering campaign to discredit him. ‘So many people phone Flavio and Bernie, saying so many horrible things about me. Everybody say I was going to stay one month or two month, and they boot me out. My position now is stronger than ever. I do my job in an honest way. I am accused of so many things, and no one has come up and say, “Mr Paladini, you are a crook, because you done this, this and this.” You find one thing against me.’
Not surprisingly, Paladini boldly shares the confidence of Briatore, who publicly stated shortly after the purchase of the club that he expects QPR to be in the Premier League in four years, that is, by 2011, despite a stadium of limited size in a location which has none of the glamour of Chelsea or even its less illustrious neighbours, Fulham. Nevertheless, Paladini believes Loftus Road compares favourably with Craven Cottage. ‘Fulham hasn’t got a big stadium,’ he said. ‘We have more seats than Fulham. They get 15, 16, 17,000. This ground can take 19,000. We have been in the Premier League before with this ground.’ True, but not for long. And Fulham’s seating capacity is, in fact, 26,500. ‘I think it is going to be difficult to rebuild something else [here]. There is nowhere else to go.’
He also claimed, mistakenly, that a quarter of the ground was owned by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which would prohibit its sale without the council’s agreement. ‘There is a thing in the deeds that you cannot build … one quarter of the ground, it belongs to the council. The council has to agree to sell, so it has to be a joint thing with the council. You just cannot knock it down and build houses. So it’s impossible to move from here.’ A spokesman for Hammersmith and Fulham Council confirmed it owned no part of the ground. It was not the first time that the council had been put in the embarrassing position of having to deny Paladini’s claims. He once informed the press that the club planned to raise the roof of the South Africa Road stand to add a further six to seven thousand seats. He made the claim without any prior consultations with the council, causing a spokesman to deny that permission had been given or was likely to be given.
Paladini also drew encouragement from Fulham’s seven-year tenure in the Premier League, which began in 2001 after a four-year meteoric rise from the old Division Three after Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed bought the club in 1997. ‘They have been there for ten years,’ he said, once again in error. ‘This year they have done badly because they spend £35–40 million chasing players.’ Far from the truth, said a spokesman for the club, which escaped relegation from the Premier League by a whisker after closing the 2007–8 season with a 1-0 win over Portsmouth to end up in 17th position on goal difference. ‘What we spent on players is nowhere near those figures,’ said the spokesman.
But so far Mohamed Al Fayed is personally out of pocket by about £200 million, which, since 1997, has been spent on players, the purchase of the stadium freehold, general redevelopment and the cost of training ground facilities. He has a genuine interest in Fulham outside of the profit margin. Ecclestone does not have a similar enthusiasm for QPR, which is why he is not on the board. He believes he has better things to do with his time. The moment he gets a whiff of good money being thrown after bad, he will be checking the exit clauses. He is not the kind of businessman who will stump up for the sake of personal passion or face-saving ego. Briatore, too, will not be risking any of his £120 million by going down the Al Fayed road.
The driving force behind the rebirth of QPR, Briatore has declared that the club, which has played its home matches in nearly 20 different stadia, a league record, before permanently settling in Loftus Road in 1917, will become a global brand to rival Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Briatore has certainly proved himself a successful operator in Formula One in attracting all-important sponsors. In March 2008 the club announced it had signed a five-year deal worth £20 million, reputedly the biggest ever Championship deal of its kind, with Italian firm Lotto Sport Italia as kit manufacturer. He claimed to have three or four similar deals lined up with international companies. Lakshmi Mittal’s influential connections in India will also be very important in moving into Asian markets, as will the efforts of his son-in-law Amit Bhatia in developing the links.
In the meantime, Paladini has been given a modest budget to get the renaissance under way on the pitch. He won’t say how much because, he claimed, ‘the budget change every day, depending on who we are looking for. My job is to try to be clever and not spend silly money, because my job will be on the line. Flavio and the others are not stupid. You have to be very wise, and this board is very wise. They are not going to give me five million, ten million, to go and buy another player. I wouldn’t do that. You don’t need to spend a fortune to get into the Premier League.’
Paladini summed up the previous 18 months of his life with the emotions of a man who has just heard at the eleventh hour that his execution appeal has been successful. ‘You know when you are in trouble and you know there is no escape. That is how I felt for so long. With my wife and family I have to pretend that everything is all right. Before, I used to be as tough as nails but now, over a little thing, I become very emotional. I am not ashamed to say that I did cry many times on my own. I try to do everything I can for this club. I gave my word to the fans that I wouldn’t let them down, and I haven’t. I never walk out of here and somebody come and smack me and say, “Paladini, you are a bastard”. No, I always have the people shake hands with me and say, “We appreciate what you are doing.” I have a lot of fans on my side, because they knew what I was trying to do was best for the club.’
The fairy -tale rescue of Queens Park Rangers was concluded in early July – with time to spare before the 31st deadline – when a newly-formed company called Amulya Property Ltd, of which Briatore and Bhatia are directors, made funds available to pay off the ABC loan of £10 million at a reduced interest rate of 8.5 per cent over a two-year period, by when the club optimistically plans to be in the Premier League. As with the ABC loan, if QPR fails to repay the debt, Amulya Property Ltd will become the new owner of Loftus Road Stadium.
Bernie Ecclestone is, of course, perfectly at ease rubbing sh
oulders with the mega-rich movers and shakers in the world of soccer. They are joined at the hip by the power game, each in the pecking order dictated by their wealth or political pull, which puts Ecclestone way up the grid on both counts. And – who knows? – by the end of his days, with the death-rattle in his throat, he may well have stashed away another few hundred million in the family trust. His equation is simple: the more money he has, the more power he has. When a former business associate and friend of more than 50 years asked him when he was going to retire, he replied: ‘What would I do?’ Said his friend: ‘Money to Bernard is power, nothing else.’ He has achieved both infinitely more brilliantly, more shrewdly, more relentlessly and ruthlessly than most, ‘yet he must run ever faster simply to stand still, because there is nothing else he can do’.
Whatever the remaining years hold for Ecclestone, who was appointed a vice-president of honour at the FIA’s General Assembly in 2001, one can be sure, to abuse Dylan Thomas, that he will not go gently into his good night. He will rage and rage against the dying of the light as his fingers are prised from the arms of his executive chair. It is the supreme and most tragic irony of all, when one considers the truly remarkable life of Bernard Charles Ecclestone – that the man who has fought all his life to be in total control isn’t in control after all, and perhaps never really has been. Money has been his lifelong quest, and money has been his master. He is a lonely man, without many close friends and few loved ones. Now, at the end of his years, he has little but the cold, uncaring comfort of his billions. That’s Bernie’s game.
‘What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’
– Matthew 16:26
GLOSSARY
ACEA: Association des Constructeurs Européens d’Automobiles
ACO: Automobile Club de l’Ouest
ACCUS: Automobile Competition Committee for the United States
ACF: Automobile Club de France
ACM: Automobile Club de Monaco
BGPDA: British Grand Prix Drivers Association
BRM: British Racing Motors
CART: Championship Auto Racing Teams
CASC: Canadian Automobile Sports Club
CSI: Commission Sportive Internationale (later FISA)
DTM: Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft
F1CA: Formula One Constructors’ Association
FFSA: Fédération Française du Sport Automobile
FIA: Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile
FISA: Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile
FOA: Formula One Administration
FOCA (formerly F1CA): Formula One Constructors’ Association
GPDA: Grand Prix Drivers’ Association
GPI: Grand Prix International
IPRA: International Press Racing Association
IRTS: International Race Tire Services
ISC: International Sportsworld Communicators
ITC: International Touringcar Championship
JAF: Japanese Automobile Federation
MCD: Motor Circuit Developments Ltd
NASCAR: North American Sports Car Racing
RAC: Royal Automobile Club
RACE: Real Automóvil Club de España
SCCA: Sports Car Club of America
TWR: Tom Walkinshaw Racing
WCR: World Championship Racing
WFMS: World Federation of Motor Sport
WMSC: World Motor Sport Council
WRTA: World Rally Teams Association
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