Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore have hit back at Amit Bhatia, following the Indian's resignation from the QPR board of directors earlier this week.
But in an official statement from QPR today Ecclestone and Briatore stated their case on ticket prices, Neil Warnock and Bhatia's actions. The pair say the offer for the club from the Mittal family was "insultingly low" and again claimed the new ticket prices are in line with other London Premiership sides.
Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore have today (Friday 27th May 2011) clarified the following points in the wake of recent press reports regarding Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
Bernie Ecclestone and the Flavio Briatore Trust (FB Trust) saved QPR from administration when they acquired the Club in 2007. When the Mittals joined them, FB Trust and Ecclestone maintained an 80% interest in the Club and provided 80% of the funding needed to run QPR.
In 2009 when Briatore took a backseat at QPR, FB Trust passed a 13% shareholding in QPR to the Mittals free of charge. This took Ecclestone and the FB Trust's combined shareholding to 67% and they have continued to fund 67% of the Club's financial need, with the Mittals contributing 33%.
When Ecclestone and Briatore took over at QPR, they were clear about their vision to take the Club into the Premier League within four years and this plan has now been achieved, with QPR set to grace the top-flight of English football in the 2011/12 season.
Both Ecclestone and Briatore believe that Amit Bhatia's recent comments and the subsequent press coverage have been damaging to QPR and do not fairly reflect the reality of the situation. They have not received a written offer from the Mittals for their QPR shares and feel strongly that the verbal offer made to them was insultingly low. Bhatia appears to be using the press to try to force the price of any deal down, which is disrespectful to both the club and its fans.
Despite the assertions from both Bhatia and Lakshmi Mittal that they were prepared to invest heavily in QPR to allow Neil Warnock to spend money on new players ahead of the new season, a recent request for shareholder funding was rejected by Bhatia, whereas Ecclestone and FB Trust have met and will continue to meet their funding commitments to the Club.
Ishan Saksena has parted company with QPR as a result of managerial changes that the Board felt were appropriate after the way in which the FA Hearing was handled. This was a decision made by the Board for the best interests of QPR.
QPR's Season Ticket prices for the 2011/12 season are in line with other London-based Premier League Clubs and are reflective of the Club's newly achieved Premier League status. With over 90% of QPR Season Tickets being sold in Gold and Silver areas, the year-on-year increase in the standard price of a Season Ticket for the majority of fans is between 22%-27%, or 16%-21% when taking account of inflation and the increase in VAT. Ecclestone and Briatore believe that although price increases have been necessary, they are not unduly high and initial sales have so far been encouraging, with four times as many tickets being sold in the first 48 hours when compared with last season. In fact, QPR's website has spoken to a number of fans who have already renewed their tickets.
"My ticket has gone up in price, but - personally - I think it represents good value for money."
"The owners have put their money in and as a supporter of the Club, I've done the same, because it's my team."
"The buzz of coming along to Loftus Road on a matchday is special. The whole experience is great."
As both Ecclestone and Briatore have stated in recent days, Neil Warnock's post as Manager remains secure and Neil has the full support of the Board. Discussions have already taken place between Neil and the Board, in which Neil outlined his thoughts on player acquisitions ahead of the new Premier League season and was assured that he will be able to keep his best players for QPR's return to the Premier League.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Flavio Briatore has ruled out becoming more hands on at Loftus Road again, and is fully behind manager Neil Warnock. He said: "No, I don't want to (get more involved), absolutely not. The coach and Gianni Paladini are the ones involved right now. Nothing has changed, absolutely nothing. I don't want to be involved at all. Forget about selling, Bernie and I we are together and we own 70 percent of the club. This is what we have. We go ahead like we have from day one. The plan for QPR is to make sure next season we are competitive, we keep all the good players we have in the squad at the moment and the coach is now looking to set up a very good club for next season. We have complete trust in Neil. We try to help him have the best squad for next year to be competitive."
On the pitch full back Peter Ramage says he is close to agreeing a new one year contract at Loftus Road after recovering from the knee injury which wrecked his 2010/11 campaign. Ramage told Sky Sports: "Since the season has finished we've not really had the chance to sit down and talk about a new contract, but hopefully in the next week or so we will get round to it,. They've verbally offered me something and the gaffer has told me that he'd like to keep me on, but obviously the gaffer has a lot of work on in the summer to strengthen the squad for the Premier League.
"Definitely good vibes so far though, with my agent talking to Gianni Paladini the other day and he expressed a desire to offer me a one-year contract too, so hopefully we can sit down and thrash something out in the next few weeks. I've had a few weeks off this summer, but one of my mates is a fitness instructor and he is putting me through my paces so that I'm raring to go when pre-season training begins."
Mikele Leigertwood is definitely not returning to Loftus Road though, he has signed a three year deal with Reading afdter the clubs agreed an undisclosed fee. The midfielder agreed to make his loan move to Reading permanent this week after a hugely successful season at the Madejski Stadium which could yet end with promotion along with QPR – Reading play Swansea in the play off final on Monday.
Leigertwood told the Evening Standard: ""I'm delighted. I've been very happy since the first minute I got here. I've been made so welcome. It's such a good club and it's been a good season - now I'm hoping it can get even better. For me it's all about playing football. To stay and sit on the bench, you could probably deal with it for a little while. But ultimately the main aim is to play football and I was given the opportunity to do that here at Reading . I always knew that Reading also had a good chance of going up. At the time obviously QPR were still top of the league, but to come here to a club who were obviously pushing, whether it be automatic or the play-offs, there's still a chance, and obviously I wanted to take that."
Reading boss Brian McDermott said: "To get Mikele is important. Since he walked in he has been terrific. He’s made for us, has a great work ethic, is a good playerand very popular around the group.”
Whether Leigertwood will be a Premiership player next season is too tough to call, according to QPR striker Jamie Mackie. Looking ahead to Monday's final he told the club's official website: "It's so hard to call. I thought Readng were quality against Cardiff and on a personal note I'd probably like them to progress. I love the local games and they're only up the M4 so that's why I say that. The QPR fans love going to the Madejski too. Swansea play some quality football though and they're a resilient bunch so I really can't call it. It will be a really tight affair and a bit of a lottery on the day."
QPR have been linked with a move for Burnley's England U21 striker Jay Rodriguez, who scored 15 goals for the Clarets last season and once knocked QPR out of the FA Cup with a goal in the last second of extra time in a third round replay. However Burnley boss Eddie Howe told the Lancashire Telegraph that his man is not for sale: "We’re not open to any offers for Jay, and we won’t encourage any either. He’s had a fantastic season and he’s a big part of our plans. I’ve not heard anything from QPR, but if I did, they would be told to go away in no certain terms.”
There are more positive vibes coming from Sunderland 's out of contract Dutch international Bolo Zenden. The 34-year-old said on Twitter: "Flattered to be linked with QPR – Neil Warnock is a great manager" after the Daily Mail linked him with a switch to Loftus Road.
Rounding up the seemingly never ending pile of other rumours/rubbish Rangers have been linked with Rangers' James Beattie who spent the second half of last season with Blackpool, Spurs centre half Sebastien Bassong (both Talksport), Lyon's impressive but injury prone centre half John Mensah who spent the last two seasons on loan with Sunderland (Daily Mail), Blackpool striker DJ Campbell who is also interesting Sunderland and has a £1m release fee in his contract (Blackpool Gazette), Crystal Palace's want away Player of the Year Nathaniel Clyne (Coydon Today), Nottingham Forest midfield enforcer Guy Moussi and Hull's Seyi Olofinjana who spent last season on loan at Cardiff (Ealing Gazette).
But the R's will need to stump up a significant amount of cash to secure another rumoured target Javier Saviola from Penfica. His representative Diego Queiruga told Portuguese radio station Antena 1: "The player is at Benfica and doesn't want to leave - only an attractive offer for the club and the player would see him go."
Just up the M1 at Barnsley the managerial situation is equally uncertain. After being turned down by Rochdale 's Keith Hill last week the Tykes have now been refused permission to speak to Russell Slade by his club Leyton Orient. Barnsley put manager Mark Robins on 12 months notice at the end of this season after a row about transfer budgets but Robins then decided to resign anyway.
- Norwich have played down reports linking them with veteran German international Miroslav Klose, but are said to be close to concluding an expensive looking £2.5m deal for Everton striker James Vaughan who spent last season on loan at Palace. Manager Paul Lambert said of Klose: "The lad's 30-odd now, he's played in front of 80,000 people. He isn't going to come to Norwich and put his shoulder to the wheel, that's me being totally honest."
- Leeds are set to lose midfielders Neil Kilkenny and Bradley Johnson on free transfers after both players rejected new deals at Elland Road. Manager Simon Grayson said: "It's disappointing but it looks like Bradley won't be re-signing. This is a situation we wanted resolving as a club because we are looking ahead to next season. We felt we made the player a suitable offer."
- Robert Earnshaw is stalling on signing a new deal at Forest as he waits to see what other offers are available. He said: "I'm obviously a free agent in the next month or so. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know where I'm going to be playing next year. Forest have been very good, to be fair. I still need to speak to Forest and still need to tie some things down."