Queen´s Park Rangers

Full name – Queens Park Rangers Football Club
Nickname(s) – QPR, Hoops, Super Hoops.
Founded – 1882
Ground – Loftus Road,
Capacity – 18,360
Owner – QPR Holdings, Ltd.
Chairman – Tony Fernandez
Manager – Mark Hughes
League – Premier League
2010–11 – The Championship champions.

The four biggest ways to avoid tax if you are super rich is to give big to a charity (it helps to own the charity so you don’t have to spend the money…), run some loss making businesses in your portfolio or invest a lot in buy to let property, Queens Park Rangers comfortably in all of those categories, owned by the less than emotive sounding QPR Holdings. It’s pretty obvious that rich foreign football club owners are mostly here to ‘legally’ evade tax by buying into loss making British football clubs, the perk being profits on transfers and access to the clean British banking system. They often take out more cash than they put in and go for a fairly quick sell on and I suppose one could level those accusations at the likes of the colourful Flavio Briatore and grumpy Bernie Ecclestone, people that love money more than football and most fans would say should not be in the game. The consortium promised to pour big money into the club but never did, ending up securing loans against the clubs assets, the players and ground. Now that George Osborne has started to close those tax loopholes expect foreign businessmen to lose interest in football clubs very quickly. There are 124,456 registered charities in the UK alone. QPR are never going to a big club but always a decent earner for short term owners, the nearby Heathrow airport somewhat convenient. West London seems to be a home for these foreign enigmatic football club owners.

QPR, of course, were the subject of a fabulous documentary called ‘The Four Year Plan’, a must for all football fans, eye-opening as it was funny and chaotic, dealing with the owners of the club and the erratic way they ran it in pursuit of promotion to the Premiership. Briatore was the star, revelling in his power trip, getting his number two to sack managers if they weren’t quite up to his idea of doing the job, which included putting on substitutes when told to by Fabio, which meant lots of managers and no job security, delaying their inevitable promotion to the Premier League, where the film ends. Neil Warnock looked like he would bring stability after getting them up but QPRs new owner, Tony Fernandes, foolishly blinked and Mark Hughes came in and it looks like he will be dragged down with them on the last day of the season. If they do go down Hughes could well be the 12th manager in just 7 years to be fired there.

Relegation…

We all agree Wolves are down, Terry Conner managing skills as lightweight as he looks and talks. You can’t help but feel that part of the reason the fans and players don’t really back him is he is black; not commanding the authority an older grey haired man from Holland would, for example. That’s just my opinion. Blackburn fans moronic abuse of their manager may now cost them their place in the elite as the results have now tanked again after a recent truce after the crowd simply got bored of abusing Keene, but five straight defeats since.

The Muamba bounce is over for Bolton after his heart attack bought his team back to life with three straight wins, their best run for six years, Muamba walking out of hospital far healthier than his team after three straight defeats in April. For Wigan there is hope and four wins out of five has given them a great chance after Dave Whelan, their chairmen, had a public word and they beat Arsenal and Manchester United soon after, Wigan designed to beat passing sides and playing their joker. When the guy who pays the wages has to come into the dressing room you know it’s nearly all over.

Aston Villa hit the beach early but their orbit is decaying fast and if they don’t restart the engines soon they could be sucked into the mire for a spectacular impact on planet football. At least one home win next week should be enough though. QPR’s final games offer little hope and so a surprise win over local rivals Spur’s this week is a must now, the uncertainty over Redknapp and England ripping the North Londoners season part and so that a real possibility. If anyone doubts the power of a good manager and the feckless and lazy moral nature of players then they need look no further than White Hart Lane. Give them an inch and they will take a mile.

Last four games…

QPR V Spurs
Chelsea V QPR
QPR V Stoke
Man City V QPR

5 games left ---- Aston Villa 35pts (-13)
4 games left-----Wigan 34pts (-25)
4 games left---- QPR 31pts (-19)

--------------------------------------
6 games left----Bolton 29pts (-29)
4 games left----Blackburn 28pts (-28)
4 games left----Wolves 23pts (-39)

History…

QPR are not a glamorous club but one of the older ones, 130 years no less. In that time they set the record for playing at the most home venues with twenty different stadiums hosting Rangers over the decades, the vagabonds of London. Their claim to fame was to become the first Third Division club to win The League Cup (1967) and returned to the final in 1985 but still their only major cup win, the problem. In the Terry Venables plastic pitch season of 1982 they made The Cup Final and nearly won the first division title back in 1974, their only other notable successes. You go to QPR to watch good top flight football rather than cup runs.

Main Squad….

1 GK Paddy Kenny
2 MF Samba Diakité (on loan from Nancy)
3 DF Clint Hill
4 MF Shaun Derry
5 DF Fitz Hall
6 DF Danny Gabbidon
7 MF Adel Taarabt
9 FW DJ Campbell
10 FW Jay Bothroyd
12 FW Jamie Mackie
13 DF Armand Traoré
14 MF Ákos Buzsáky
17 MF Joey Barton
18 DF Luke Young
20 FW Rob Hulse
21 MF Tommy Smith
22 FW Heiðar Helguson
23 FW Djibril Cissé
24 GK Radek ÄŒerný
26 GK Brian Murphy
32 MF Shaun Wright-Phillips
34 DF Taye Taiwo (on loan from A.C. Milan)
35 DF Anton Ferdinand (vice-captain)
42 DF Nedum Onuoha
52 FW Bobby Zamora

There are players from twenty different nations at the club with the most notable being Joey Barton, a good player but not noted for respecting managers and keeping his mouth shut, great value on Twitter. They play like Fulham on their tight ground and need good home form to stay up, not a smash and grab outfit. Bobby Zamora has come in but doesn’t seem to fit into their system and keeping Helguson out who can score goals. Adel Taarabt is their star player and the Championship Player of the Year last year but hasn’t clicked at all this year, seemingly intimidated by the quality in the Premiership. Who ever can manage him correctly has a great player on their hands, stopping him eating jelly and crisps where to start. Defensively they need organising, Anton Ferdinand’s problems not helping.

Celebrity fans…

Musicians Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode, Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, Mick Jones of The Clash, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, Robert Smith of The Cure and Pete Doherty of The Libertines and Babyshambles. Apparently, head case Doherty used to run the [a] club fanzine, "All Quiet on The Western Avenue", and has made reference to them in his music and videos. Occasional musician and comedian Bill Bailey is also a fan of Queens Park Rangers. Andrew Ridgeley of pop band Wham was featured in a QPR kit in the video for "The Edge of Heaven".

QPR fans All-Time X1…

Phil Parkes (1970–79)
Dave Clement (1965–79)
Alan McDonald (1981–97)
Paul Parker (1987–91)
Ian Gillard (1968–82)
Trevor Sinclair (1993–98)
Stan Bowles (1972–79)
Gerry Francis (1968–79)
Dave Thomas (1972–77)
Les Ferdinand (1987–95)
Rodney Marsh (1966–72

Honours…

Premier League and Division 1
Runners-up: 1975–1976

Football League Championship and the old Div One

Champions: 1982–83; 2010–11
Runners-up: 1967–68; 1972–73

Football League One and old Div Two

Champions: 1947–48; 1966–67
Runners-up: 1946–47; 2003–04

-FA Cup-

Runners-up: 1981–82

-League Cup-

Winners: 1966–67
Runners-up: 1985–86

-FA Charity Shield-

Runners-up: 1907–08; 1911–12