And a couple days later, four years ago: These articles
November 2, 2008
Briatore Speaks "I Know What I'm Doing....t’s ridiculous we need someone with experience"!-
The Times/Kaveh Solhekol - Flavio Briatore will do it his way
It is a cold Saturday afternoon in November and most league chairmen are tucking into their prematch meals before they put on their expensive overcoats and head for the best seats in the house. The odd man out is Flavio Briatore, the flamboyant Italian tycoon who, along with some of the richest men in the world, added Queens Park Rangers to his portfolio of business interests last year.
If it is the first Saturday in November, it must mean that he is at the Brazilian Grand Prix watching Renault, his Formula One team, race for the final time this season. “I’m here to talk about anything you want,” he said. “Queens Park Rangers, football, Formula One, I’m all yours.”
Briatore wants to get a lot off his chest. When he saved QPR from bankruptcy in August last year, the club’s fans were dancing in the streets around Loftus Road. QPR were about to become the richest club in the world thanks to Briatore and his billionaire friends, Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights holder, and Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate. But progress has been slow, ignoring the dramatic transformation of the directors’ box and boardroom.
“The directors’ areas outplush even Abramovich’s Chelsea,” Karren Brady, the Birmingham City managing director, said after her team lost 1-0 in London on Tuesday. “It’s the fantasy boardroom experience.”
Cynics would say that the VIP areas, ticket prices, the club badge and the manager are all that have changed since London’s beautiful people started turning up in Shepherds Bush to get their fix of what Briatore likes to call boutique football. On the pitch, QPR made a decent but lacklustre start to the season and
all hell broke loose ten days ago when Briatore sacked Iain Dowie.“I was not happy with the football that Dowie was producing, simple as that,” Briatore said.
“I know what I am doing. I have won World Championships in Formula One. I have not come from the steel business or the finance business, I am from the sport business.”
So, is there truth in the rumour that Dowie resigned when Briatore handed him a list of players he had to pick for the game against Reading on October 25?
“It was just a normal discussion,” Briatore said. “The coach is important but the money is coming from us. If we had not made the decision about Dowie, the season could have been a big disaster. I’m not scared to make a decision. Not making a decision is often a bad decision.”Briatore wants Gareth Ainsworth to replace Dowie but his business partners are not convinced that the 35-year-old caretaker manager is the right man for the job, especially after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat away to Ipswich Town. Amit Bhatia, the vice-chairman, and Ecclestone are worried that Ainsworth is inexperienced and ten candidates, including Sam Allardyce, Steve Cotterill, Terry Venables, Roberto Mancini, Gianluca Vialli and David O’Leary, have been sounded out.
“This is speculation,” Briatore said. “You give a chance to people who deserve it. Gareth deserves a chance. I gave Michael
Schumacher a chance in Formula One,
so it’s ridiculous we need someone with experience.”One of QPR’s best performances since Briatore arrived at the club was in West London six days ago. Down to ten men for half the game with most of Briatore’s favourite Italian players on the pitch, QPR beat Birmingham to climb to seventh in the Coca-Cola Championship.
Briatore was roaring his team on and instructing Ainsworth and his players from the directors’ box. “In the papers they say that I choose the team but this is crazy,” he said. “I know I’m not a normal chairman but I can’t pick the team from Brazil." The Times
Terry Venables/The Sun November 1, 2008-
"TOTTENHAM’S decision to axe Damien Comolli is the end of the director of football in England. Not before time. I’ve never known a more divisive and pointless job in all my years in the game.....
- "...One thing an owner hates more than anything else is seeing his money wasted. The logical conclusion to a situation like that is what happened at QPR. Co-owner Flavio Briatore sacked Iain Dowie and decided to pick the team himself.
- I could never work in a situation like that. My name’s been linked to QPR but it’s not going to happen.
- Briatore may think he can do the job himself and he may even succeed in the short-term. But in the end he will fail.
- The only way you can pick a team is if you’re on the training ground every day.
- I’m fascinated to know what the League Managers’ Association makes of it all.
- Under their rules, a footballer who has spent his entire career in the game cannot be a manager without passing his coaching badges.
- So how come a man with no football background whatsoever is allowed to manage QPR?
- I understand Gareth Ainsworth accepting the situation there as he chases a first step on to the coaching ladder.
- But no self-respecting manager would accept working for an owner who picks the team.
- When it comes to tactics, team selection and transfers, the manager MUST have total control. When things go wrong, managers get the sack.
- Just about every top team succeeds as they have a strong, independent manager who runs the club from top to bottom..." The Sun
Year Ago- CNBC - The Leaders: Flavio Briatore"CNBC's Simon Hobbs speaks to Flavio Briatore, CEO of Renault Formula One & joint-owner of QPR Soccer Club, about how he made his first fortune selling 800 Benetton franchises across America" - CNBC Video - Briatore Interviewed
www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=912874697&play=1-
November 2, 2008 David O'Leary to QPR?Express- Paul Hetherington -QPR TARGET O'LEARY
DAVID O’LEARY has emerged as the main threat to QPR caretaker-manager Gareth Ainsworth being installed on a permanent basis.
Former Leeds United and Aston Villa boss O’Leary is firmly in the frame to succeed the sacked Iain Dowie at Loftus Road.
Ainsworth in known to have impressed one of the three co-owners of Rangers – Italian Flavio Briatore.
But O’Leary’s experience, style and availability appeal to ambitious Rangers – and have made him a serious contender for the job.
QPR are one of the richest clubs in the world in terms of the wealth of their owners – Formula One bosses Bernie Ecclestone and Briatore, plus multi-billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who has a 20 per cent stake in the club.
Mittal has been described as the fourth richest man in the world.
Significantly, O’Leary is close to another influential figure in the motor racing world, fellow Irishman Eddie Jordan.
With that amount of financial clout, Rangers have become one of the most appealing clubs in the country, particularly to high profile, out-of-work managers. Express
"Former Leeds and Aston Villa manager David O'Leary is in the frame to succeed Iain Dowie as QPR boss. (Sunday Express]" - BBC Gossip
SUNDAY PEOPLE - O'LEARY ALL SET FOR QPR -EXCLUSIVE By Steve Bates
David O'leary is the shock contender to take charge at QPR - with motorracing boss Eddie Jordan involved in brokering a deal to install him at Loftus Road.
I understand Irishman O'Leary is interested in the post and talks are planned with Rangers' owners Formula One bosses Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone and Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.
O'Leary, 50, hasn't been in management since terminating his contract at Villa Park in July 2006 following criticism of then chairman Doug Ellis. People
