Post by QPR Report on Oct 19, 2009 6:51:10 GMT
On This Day:
October 19, 1972:
(Yes I know we just "did" his birthday
)
Thirty-six years ago today, QPR Sign Dave Thomas for a club and a then-Division Two Record Signing
- QPR had won four games in a row...QPR's absolutely brilliant midfielder, Martyn Busby had his leg shattered in a midweek game at Fulham (and so sadly never returned to his pre-injury future international level)...QPR's response: Gordon Jago and Jim Gregory signed Burnley's England U-23 midfielder/winger, Dave Thomas for a QPR and England transfer-shattering record: 165,000 pounds. A few months earlier, Thomas had been described as "the best young player in Europe." (Six months earlier, QPR had received 200,000 [pounds for Marsh and the English transfer record was not much higher.
- Thomas made his QPR debut at home to Sunderland, October 21. QPR won 3-2 (Bowles 2, Givens) QPR's team: Parkes, Clement, Hazell Evans Watson, Venables, Francis, Thomas, Bowles, Givens, Leach. Thomas struggled a bit before making the wing his own.
Obviously played a major, major role in QPR's (almost) Championship season. Played also 8 timrd for England. Jim Gregory bizarrely sold Thomas to Everton on the eve of the new season, hurting new manager Frank Sibley.
Three Years Ago Today: October 19, 2006: QPR OFFICIAL STATEMENT - WADDOCK DEPARTS
"Queens Park Rangers Football Club have parted company with Gary Waddock.
Waddock was named as manager on June 28 after a spell as caretaker manager following the departure of Ian Holloway. The former Rangers midfielder moved into a coaching role when John Gregory was then appointed at the end of last month. QPR would like to thank Gary and wish him every success in the future."
[Waddock's departure came less than a Month after then-Chairman Paladini had declared that Waddock would be staying and working with/under John Gregory (and that in fact the Gregory's appointment had been made in consultation with Waddock and that Gregory had spoken about Waddock learning by his side.]
[At the time it had been said:
OFFICIAL SITE - GREGORY APPOINTED
John Gregory has been appointed as QPR First Team Manager with immediate effect.
Gary Waddock will now work under the former Aston Villa boss in an Assistant Manager's role.
In an exclusive interview with www.qpr.co.uk, Chairman Gianni Paladini revealed his delight at the appointment: "It's a fantastic scoop for the Club.
"John is a proven manager at the highest level and is very eager to get back in to the managerial game.
"He's sat down with Gary and talked everything through and the situation is perfect as we look to climb the Championship table.
"I'd like to wish the pair of them the very best in their new roles.''
.....
Waddock said: "It's the right decision for the club, I'm just thankful that Gianni thinks enough of me to keep me here as Assistant Manager.
"I look forward to working with John, we both played together under Terry Venables and have the same work ethic.
"I'll learn a lot from him and I'm sure that this appointment will benefit the club I love."
And published four years ago today:
David Conn/The Guardian - October 19, 2005 - "The ABC of Boardroom Intrigue at Loftus Road"
We know plenty more now about how Chelsea were airlifted from Ken Bates' debt mountain by the billionaire from nowhere, but for their near-neighbours, Queens Park Rangers, no such outrageous fortune has delivered them from turmoil. QPR were threatened with expulsion by the Football League in 2002, having been in administration for a year, and staggered out only by clutching a £10m loan from the mysterious Panama-registered ABC Corporation, which has burdened them ever since.
Now, after a string of boardroom showdowns, the club is run by Gianni Paladini, an Italian former players' agent and, increasingly, Antonio Caliendo, the one-time Mr Big of Italian agents who in 1991 received a 10-month suspended prison sentence for attempted corruption. QPR are mostly owned by two New York-registered companies, Barnaby and Wenlock, who operate from Monte Carlo.
"I have fallen in love with Queens Park Rangers, its name and history," Caliendo told me, through an interpreter, this week. "We want to rebuild it both as a team and a business."
Caliendo, 61, found early success selling encyclopaedias door-to-door, rose up the ranks of the De Agostini publishing group, then in 1979 fixed what were thought to be the first personal endorsements by an Italian footballer, for the international playmaker Giancarlo Antognoni. Caliendo claims that in the 1990 World Cup final between West Germany and Argentina, he represented 12 of the 22 players on the pitch, but he also dates his troubles in Italy from the same year, after his client Roberto Baggio's move from Fiorentina to Juventus, which provoked riots by Fiorentina fans.
In 1991, officers from the Italian tax authorities raided Caliendo's offices, he was arrested, then on May 30 he did a deal, accepting a 10-month suspended prison sentence for attempted corruption. Caliendo told me he is intensely proud of his record and defends his reputation for "moral integrity" absolutely. He said he accepted the conviction only on his solicitor's advice, to secure a quick release from prison, and considered suing the government.
A year later, in July 1992, an investigation into the collapse of the Italian club, Hellas Verona, led to Caliendo, among others, being arrested and remanded in custody, but, after a long investigation, he was not prosecuted. "I was never convicted of anything in relation to Verona," Caliendo said. "Several high-profile figures were attacked by the Revenue in Italy at that time."
Caliendo said he is ready to "accept new challenges", and, like Paladini, a long-term associate, has given up his agent's licence to become fully involved at Loftus Road. Caliendo is shortly expected to become the club's new chairman. It is expected he will pass the Football League's "fit and proper person test" for directors, because his criminal conviction dates from long enough ago to be regarded as spent.
QPR are still reaping the consequences of their version of living the dream, after they were taken over and floated on the stock market in 1996 by Chris Wright, the Chrysalis music entrepreneur. He invested £10m but, in April 2001, with QPR having lost £27m, Wright put QPR into administration. A month later they were relegated to the then Second Division.
In May 2002, with the Football League insisting the club could not start the new season in administration, QPR accepted the £10m loan from the ABC Corporation, at 10%, £1m, annual interest, secured on Loftus Road. ABC's owners cannot be officially identified, but sources at QPR believe the man behind the company is Michael Hunt, the former Nissan UK director who in 1993 was sentenced to eight years in jail for his role in what was then Britain's largest tax fraud.
In July 2003 a QPR fan and businessman, Bill Power, born and bred in Shepherd's Bush, bought some unissued shares and joined the board; QPR rallied and, with Ian Holloway their manager, won promotion to the Championship.
Gianni Paladini told me that, like Caliendo, he was looking for a new challenge, and examined Port Vale and Derby - which also has a loan from the ABC Corporation, £15m - then eventually offered £670,000 for 10% of QPR. The club, facing another red tax bill, accepted the investment hungrily.
This barely staunched the financial problems, however, so then, arranged by Caliendo, the two New York-registered vehicles, Barnaby and Wenlock, paid £1.7m for 29.9% of QPR, most of which went straight to the tax man.
In August, following boardroom upheavals, Power quit, Mark Devlin was made redundant as chief executive, and the last London-based director, Kevin McGrath, resigned last month. QPR's directors now are Paladini, the former Brazil captain Dunga, representing Barnaby, and Gualtiero Trucco, a 34-year-old based in Monte Carlo, representing Wenlock.
The club and its fans are reeling from a series of revelations, particularly about ballooning agents' fees paid out since Paladini became more closely involved. In the six months to June 30 2004, the Football League's list of agents' payments show QPR paid just £12,000 altogether. Then, from July 1 2004 to June 30 this year, QPR paid £320,935 in fees.
Many of the payments were to agents who are friends or former associates of Paladini. Brian Hassall, a Midlands-based agent, was involved in a long-running legal claim against Paladini, which was eventually settled, and he was paid the highest single fee, £60,000, when QPR signed the Danish striker Marc Nygaard at the beginning of this season.
Paladini told me the payment was absolutely legitimate and not connected to his legal battle: "Brian and I settled it, now we are friends, and of course I deal with people I know. Ian Holloway was looking for a big lad, Nygaard was at Brescia, I checked him out with Roberto Baggio, who said he would be perfect for English football. When you sign a player, you pay agents, that's how football works. Now, after all this fuss, we will try not to do it in future, but all the deals were above board and in the best interests of QPR."
All the agents' payments are understood to have been registered with the League, as required by the rules, except one, £10,000 paid to Paladini's close friend Mel Eves when QPR signed Dean Sturridge from Wolves. Paladini explained that Eves was acting for QPR as a dealmaker and so the payment did not need to be registered.
The League is understood to have discussed QPR's situation with the FA's financial advisory unit, but neither the FA nor the League is taking any action currently. "We are monitoring the situation," a League spokesman said.
Paladini told me that he, Caliendo and the investors, are the only game in town: "What have we done wrong? Put money in to save this club? We want the club to succeed, then everybody, including the investors, will be happy."
Talks have begun with a developer about possibly relocating from Loftus Road and building a new stadium in White City, which may clear QPR's financial problems and make them money. Paladini said he could understand, "100%", fans worrying that, in the hands of former agents, their club might be used to make money by moving players in and out.
But he said: "Nothing under the table is going on. If anybody thinks there is, let them bring the evidence. But, actually, isn't it better to have people in who know football and have made a living out of it? Clubs got into a mess partly because rich people, who knew nothing about football, put money in - and they got ripped off."
david.conn@guardian.co.uk. Additional research: John Hooper.
Burns' Hoop nightmare
When Lord Terry Burns was appointed last year to undertake the "structural review" of football's governing body, the FA, we were told he was a Queens Park Rangers fan; he was also a director of the club through its troubles, appointed by his old university friend, Chris Wright, in 1996, staying on the board until March 2001. QPR went into administration a month later and has still not recovered. Surprising, then, that Burns' mind-numbingly dull report, delivered in August, which focused on bureaucratic minutiae, seemed so uninformed by what might have been a formatively traumatic experience at QPR.
"Football in general," he wrote, "continues to enjoy very good health in England." The next day at QPR's first match of the season against Sheffield United, Gianni Paladini was allegedly held up at gunpoint, an incident over which four men have been charged.
Burns did not want to talk publicly this week about his time at QPR. As a non-executive director of the football club, it is understood he was largely "meeting and greeting" opposing clubs' directors on matchdays, but he was consulted on financial issues, the appointment of managers and major signings.
Burns' structural review, however, deals only indirectly with clubs' financial management, and not at all with the financial gap between the Premier League and Football League, so damaging for clubs such as QPR. And his main answer to the FA's struggles to govern the game? Ah yes: appoint non-executive directors to the board.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2005/oct/19/sport.comment
October 19, 1972:
(Yes I know we just "did" his birthday
)Thirty-six years ago today, QPR Sign Dave Thomas for a club and a then-Division Two Record Signing
- QPR had won four games in a row...QPR's absolutely brilliant midfielder, Martyn Busby had his leg shattered in a midweek game at Fulham (and so sadly never returned to his pre-injury future international level)...QPR's response: Gordon Jago and Jim Gregory signed Burnley's England U-23 midfielder/winger, Dave Thomas for a QPR and England transfer-shattering record: 165,000 pounds. A few months earlier, Thomas had been described as "the best young player in Europe." (Six months earlier, QPR had received 200,000 [pounds for Marsh and the English transfer record was not much higher.
- Thomas made his QPR debut at home to Sunderland, October 21. QPR won 3-2 (Bowles 2, Givens) QPR's team: Parkes, Clement, Hazell Evans Watson, Venables, Francis, Thomas, Bowles, Givens, Leach. Thomas struggled a bit before making the wing his own.
Obviously played a major, major role in QPR's (almost) Championship season. Played also 8 timrd for England. Jim Gregory bizarrely sold Thomas to Everton on the eve of the new season, hurting new manager Frank Sibley.
Three Years Ago Today: October 19, 2006: QPR OFFICIAL STATEMENT - WADDOCK DEPARTS
"Queens Park Rangers Football Club have parted company with Gary Waddock.
Waddock was named as manager on June 28 after a spell as caretaker manager following the departure of Ian Holloway. The former Rangers midfielder moved into a coaching role when John Gregory was then appointed at the end of last month. QPR would like to thank Gary and wish him every success in the future."
[Waddock's departure came less than a Month after then-Chairman Paladini had declared that Waddock would be staying and working with/under John Gregory (and that in fact the Gregory's appointment had been made in consultation with Waddock and that Gregory had spoken about Waddock learning by his side.]
[At the time it had been said:
OFFICIAL SITE - GREGORY APPOINTED
John Gregory has been appointed as QPR First Team Manager with immediate effect.
Gary Waddock will now work under the former Aston Villa boss in an Assistant Manager's role.
In an exclusive interview with www.qpr.co.uk, Chairman Gianni Paladini revealed his delight at the appointment: "It's a fantastic scoop for the Club.
"John is a proven manager at the highest level and is very eager to get back in to the managerial game.
"He's sat down with Gary and talked everything through and the situation is perfect as we look to climb the Championship table.
"I'd like to wish the pair of them the very best in their new roles.''
.....
Waddock said: "It's the right decision for the club, I'm just thankful that Gianni thinks enough of me to keep me here as Assistant Manager.
"I look forward to working with John, we both played together under Terry Venables and have the same work ethic.
"I'll learn a lot from him and I'm sure that this appointment will benefit the club I love."
And published four years ago today:
David Conn/The Guardian - October 19, 2005 - "The ABC of Boardroom Intrigue at Loftus Road"
We know plenty more now about how Chelsea were airlifted from Ken Bates' debt mountain by the billionaire from nowhere, but for their near-neighbours, Queens Park Rangers, no such outrageous fortune has delivered them from turmoil. QPR were threatened with expulsion by the Football League in 2002, having been in administration for a year, and staggered out only by clutching a £10m loan from the mysterious Panama-registered ABC Corporation, which has burdened them ever since.
Now, after a string of boardroom showdowns, the club is run by Gianni Paladini, an Italian former players' agent and, increasingly, Antonio Caliendo, the one-time Mr Big of Italian agents who in 1991 received a 10-month suspended prison sentence for attempted corruption. QPR are mostly owned by two New York-registered companies, Barnaby and Wenlock, who operate from Monte Carlo.
"I have fallen in love with Queens Park Rangers, its name and history," Caliendo told me, through an interpreter, this week. "We want to rebuild it both as a team and a business."
Caliendo, 61, found early success selling encyclopaedias door-to-door, rose up the ranks of the De Agostini publishing group, then in 1979 fixed what were thought to be the first personal endorsements by an Italian footballer, for the international playmaker Giancarlo Antognoni. Caliendo claims that in the 1990 World Cup final between West Germany and Argentina, he represented 12 of the 22 players on the pitch, but he also dates his troubles in Italy from the same year, after his client Roberto Baggio's move from Fiorentina to Juventus, which provoked riots by Fiorentina fans.
In 1991, officers from the Italian tax authorities raided Caliendo's offices, he was arrested, then on May 30 he did a deal, accepting a 10-month suspended prison sentence for attempted corruption. Caliendo told me he is intensely proud of his record and defends his reputation for "moral integrity" absolutely. He said he accepted the conviction only on his solicitor's advice, to secure a quick release from prison, and considered suing the government.
A year later, in July 1992, an investigation into the collapse of the Italian club, Hellas Verona, led to Caliendo, among others, being arrested and remanded in custody, but, after a long investigation, he was not prosecuted. "I was never convicted of anything in relation to Verona," Caliendo said. "Several high-profile figures were attacked by the Revenue in Italy at that time."
Caliendo said he is ready to "accept new challenges", and, like Paladini, a long-term associate, has given up his agent's licence to become fully involved at Loftus Road. Caliendo is shortly expected to become the club's new chairman. It is expected he will pass the Football League's "fit and proper person test" for directors, because his criminal conviction dates from long enough ago to be regarded as spent.
QPR are still reaping the consequences of their version of living the dream, after they were taken over and floated on the stock market in 1996 by Chris Wright, the Chrysalis music entrepreneur. He invested £10m but, in April 2001, with QPR having lost £27m, Wright put QPR into administration. A month later they were relegated to the then Second Division.
In May 2002, with the Football League insisting the club could not start the new season in administration, QPR accepted the £10m loan from the ABC Corporation, at 10%, £1m, annual interest, secured on Loftus Road. ABC's owners cannot be officially identified, but sources at QPR believe the man behind the company is Michael Hunt, the former Nissan UK director who in 1993 was sentenced to eight years in jail for his role in what was then Britain's largest tax fraud.
In July 2003 a QPR fan and businessman, Bill Power, born and bred in Shepherd's Bush, bought some unissued shares and joined the board; QPR rallied and, with Ian Holloway their manager, won promotion to the Championship.
Gianni Paladini told me that, like Caliendo, he was looking for a new challenge, and examined Port Vale and Derby - which also has a loan from the ABC Corporation, £15m - then eventually offered £670,000 for 10% of QPR. The club, facing another red tax bill, accepted the investment hungrily.
This barely staunched the financial problems, however, so then, arranged by Caliendo, the two New York-registered vehicles, Barnaby and Wenlock, paid £1.7m for 29.9% of QPR, most of which went straight to the tax man.
In August, following boardroom upheavals, Power quit, Mark Devlin was made redundant as chief executive, and the last London-based director, Kevin McGrath, resigned last month. QPR's directors now are Paladini, the former Brazil captain Dunga, representing Barnaby, and Gualtiero Trucco, a 34-year-old based in Monte Carlo, representing Wenlock.
The club and its fans are reeling from a series of revelations, particularly about ballooning agents' fees paid out since Paladini became more closely involved. In the six months to June 30 2004, the Football League's list of agents' payments show QPR paid just £12,000 altogether. Then, from July 1 2004 to June 30 this year, QPR paid £320,935 in fees.
Many of the payments were to agents who are friends or former associates of Paladini. Brian Hassall, a Midlands-based agent, was involved in a long-running legal claim against Paladini, which was eventually settled, and he was paid the highest single fee, £60,000, when QPR signed the Danish striker Marc Nygaard at the beginning of this season.
Paladini told me the payment was absolutely legitimate and not connected to his legal battle: "Brian and I settled it, now we are friends, and of course I deal with people I know. Ian Holloway was looking for a big lad, Nygaard was at Brescia, I checked him out with Roberto Baggio, who said he would be perfect for English football. When you sign a player, you pay agents, that's how football works. Now, after all this fuss, we will try not to do it in future, but all the deals were above board and in the best interests of QPR."
All the agents' payments are understood to have been registered with the League, as required by the rules, except one, £10,000 paid to Paladini's close friend Mel Eves when QPR signed Dean Sturridge from Wolves. Paladini explained that Eves was acting for QPR as a dealmaker and so the payment did not need to be registered.
The League is understood to have discussed QPR's situation with the FA's financial advisory unit, but neither the FA nor the League is taking any action currently. "We are monitoring the situation," a League spokesman said.
Paladini told me that he, Caliendo and the investors, are the only game in town: "What have we done wrong? Put money in to save this club? We want the club to succeed, then everybody, including the investors, will be happy."
Talks have begun with a developer about possibly relocating from Loftus Road and building a new stadium in White City, which may clear QPR's financial problems and make them money. Paladini said he could understand, "100%", fans worrying that, in the hands of former agents, their club might be used to make money by moving players in and out.
But he said: "Nothing under the table is going on. If anybody thinks there is, let them bring the evidence. But, actually, isn't it better to have people in who know football and have made a living out of it? Clubs got into a mess partly because rich people, who knew nothing about football, put money in - and they got ripped off."
david.conn@guardian.co.uk. Additional research: John Hooper.
Burns' Hoop nightmare
When Lord Terry Burns was appointed last year to undertake the "structural review" of football's governing body, the FA, we were told he was a Queens Park Rangers fan; he was also a director of the club through its troubles, appointed by his old university friend, Chris Wright, in 1996, staying on the board until March 2001. QPR went into administration a month later and has still not recovered. Surprising, then, that Burns' mind-numbingly dull report, delivered in August, which focused on bureaucratic minutiae, seemed so uninformed by what might have been a formatively traumatic experience at QPR.
"Football in general," he wrote, "continues to enjoy very good health in England." The next day at QPR's first match of the season against Sheffield United, Gianni Paladini was allegedly held up at gunpoint, an incident over which four men have been charged.
Burns did not want to talk publicly this week about his time at QPR. As a non-executive director of the football club, it is understood he was largely "meeting and greeting" opposing clubs' directors on matchdays, but he was consulted on financial issues, the appointment of managers and major signings.
Burns' structural review, however, deals only indirectly with clubs' financial management, and not at all with the financial gap between the Premier League and Football League, so damaging for clubs such as QPR. And his main answer to the FA's struggles to govern the game? Ah yes: appoint non-executive directors to the board.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2005/oct/19/sport.comment
