Filed under: West Ham, QPR, Premier League, Football
Tony Fernandes seems a sensible man. He is also an excellent businessman who has done extremely well for himself through his airline business, Air Asia. The 47-year-old is also the team principle of the Formula One outfit, Team Lotus.He juggles both those commitments with other business interests, yet it seems as though he is still not content and has become hell-bent on buying a football team as well.
Fernandes, you might remember, was the self-proclaimed West Ham fan who tried to buy them in January 2010. However, he lost his battle to snap up the Hammers to David Sullivan and David Gold.
Undeterred, he launched another takeover for the club earlier this year yet rather than keeping his offer quiet, he decided to announce his plans to the world via his Twitter account.
As you can image, that rather upset Sullivan and Gold, who were themselves struggling to cope with West Ham's pending relegation from the Premier League.
Now though, according to The Daily Mail, Fernandes has switched targets from east to west London with a reported £100 million offer to buy Queens Park Rangers.
The newspaper reports that Fernandes has been given a guided tour of Loftus Road and met with the club's manager Neil Warnock.
His intention is to buy the 62 per cent majority shareholding from current co-owner Bernie Ecclestone. Should the move go ahead, then the deal could also take in the shares owned by Ecclestone's business partner Flavio Briatore.
That would still leave the club's other shareholder, billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who himself tried to buy the club from Ecclestone only to baulk at his asking price.
All in all, it means an uncertain time for Rangers when they are in need of long-term, committed investment. Warnock's signings this summer have been modest to say the least.
Good players they may be, but the names of Danny Gabbidon, Kieron Dyer and Jay Bothroyd are hardly ones that will get the supporters of supposedly one of the richest clubs in the world excited.
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