QPR 1st April 2002 News

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April 2002 News

Tuesday 30th April 2002

Appeal for Bike Ride Sponsors

Monday 29th April 2002

Auction Results

The QPR 1st auction closed at Midnight on Friday (26th April). We would like to thank everyone who took part. the eventual winners were Mark Anderson for the Rodney Picture with a bid of £210 and a bidder who whishes to remain anonymous who bid £118 for the banner.

Monday 22nd April 2002

Statement by Sporting Rangers to QPR 1ST

NOW THAT IT APPEARS THE CURRENT QPR BOARD HAS SUCCESSFULLY NEGOTIATED A FINANCE PACKAGE TO TAKE THE CLUB OUT OF ADMINISTRATION, WE WISH BOTH DAVID DAVIES AND IAN HOLLOWAY EVERY SUCCESS FOR THE FUTURE.

FOR THE SAKE OF THE SUPPORTERS, WE TRUST THE BOARD WILL NOT ONLY ENSURE THAT THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST ARE NOT REPEATED BUT THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO TAKE THE CLUB FORWARD AND RESTORE IT TO THE EMINENT POSITION IT ONCE ENJOYED.

WE HAVE TO SAY THAT WE REMAIN DISAPPOINTED WE WERE NOT GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT OUR PROPOSALS TO THE ADMINISTRATOR. WE HAD A SOUND AND LONG TERM BUSINESS PLAN THAT WOULD HAVE GUARANTEED QPR'S FUTURE. HOWEVER, THE ADMINISTRATOR CHOSE TO GRANT THE CURRENT BOARD A PERIOD OF EXCLUSIVITY FOUR WEEKS AGO AND ALTHOUGH WE WERE AT A STAGE WHERE WE COULD HAVE COMPLETED IN TWO WEEKS, THIS PREVENTED OUR PROPOSALS EVEN BEING CONSIDERED.

FOR THE RECORD, WE HAD TWO ALTERNATIVE PROPOSALS TO PUT TO THE ADMINISTRATOR, THE FIRST INVOLVED THE SALE AND LEASE BACK OF LOFTUS ROAD WITH QPR BEING GRANTED A 250 YEAR LEASE THE SECOND AND MOST FAVOURED BY SPORTING RANGERS WAS A 25 YEAR CAPITAL GUARANTEE WITH A SIX YEAR INSURANCE INDEMNITY, RENEWABLE AT THE END OF THE SIX YEAR PERIOD, WHICH GUARANTEED THE REPAYMENT OF THE INTEREST, THEREFORE SAFEGUARDING QPR AND LEAVING LOFTUS ROAD UNENCUMBERED. BOTH SOURCES OF FINANCE WERE PREPARED TO FURTHER ASSIST THE CLUB IN THE FUTURE TO ENABLE THE CLUBTO REMAIN A VIABLE AND GOING CONCERN AT LOFTUS ROAD.

NATURALLY WE WOULD HAVE LIKED AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT THESE AND OUR OTHER IDEAS BUT DESPITE BEING A MATTER OF IMMENSE IMPORTANCE TO THE FUTURE OF QPR THE ADMINISTRATOR DECIDED OTHERWISE.

WE THEREFORE TRUST THAT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN AT THE HELM OF QPR ARE ABLE TO JUSTIFY THE FAITH HE HAS PUT IN THEM. IT IS THE LEAST THE SUPPORTERS DESERVE.

STATEMENT ENDS

Thursday 18th April 2002

QPR1st welcomes return from administration

QPR1st welcomes the news that QPR is to come out of administration by April 26th, This move will guarantee a future in the Nationwide league for the club and will enable a return to normal transfer activities. QPR1st also recognises the roles that chief executive David Davies and director Ross Jones have fulfilled in taking the club back to normal trading.

QPR1st has concerns over certain issues, however. One of these is Nick Blackburn, the current acting chairman of the club. Many members, including elected and co-opted committee members, have voiced their deep suspicions ofhis history at the club and his motives for the future. They particularly remember his, at the time widely-discussed, role in the proposed takeover of QPR by Wimbledon a year ago. QPR1st believes that Mr Blackburn at the very least owes supporters an explanation of his actions at that time and of the future of his relationship with Chris Wright, if he is to play a role in building trust between our members and the new management structure.

QPR1st is also concerned that the identity of the mystery backer, who is lending the £10m to buy out Chris Wright and pay off his loans, remains unknown. The publication of his/her identity would go a long way towards settling once and for all the rumours that continue to circulate about Ron Noades or Wright himself being in some way linked to the loan.

Because we have these doubts, your committee has not yet asked members to vote on how to respond to the new deal. As things stand, we expect to continue working as we are today, as an independent fans representative group. We will continue to question the club on all issues and to offer the club support in meeting the challenges of the future.

In the meantime, we wish the new management structure at the club every success in taking the club forward, after the waste of the last decade.

Monday 15th April 2002

QPR 1st Annual Report

Ian Holloway Hammersmith speech

Football against racism

Today marks the launch of the "Football Against Racism" week, for details and to view the our contribution click here.

Thursday 11th April 2002

Hammersmith meeting report
Thanks to Dave Barton

QPR 1st sets targets for 2002/2003

QPR 1st has produced its first annual report, which will shortly be forwarded to members and posted on our website. In it, we celebrate our successes over the last year, but also acknowledge our failures.

Summarised in David Price's opening speech to the meeting held at Hammersmith Town Hall on April 4th, the annual report is a first attempt at public self-assessment. We want to be as open about our failings as we are about our successes and to encourage debate about them. The main failing that we have acknowledged is in communication with other fans groups, particularly the LSA, which severed links with us recently. This was an issue that the Hammersmith meeting highlighted and one that we hope to resolve shortly and have communicated officially to the LSA our sincere wish to do so.

Our other failing was mainly a consequence of our having far more pressing priorities, but our fundraising was pretty nonexistent in our first year. We have already moved to remedy that, appointing John Dyer to lead a team which will concentrate on raising money for QPR 1st This will be a crucial role, since we are very close to concluding a deal which will see QPR 1st giving substantial support to the club's development of youth players. To do this, John has already produced some merchandise, which includes T-shirts and polo shirts, badges and car stickers. These items were first seen at the Hammersmith meeting, when they had a magnificent reception.

Amongst our successes, we count our work interrogating the various bidders, the clothes for Africa scheme that Tracy Stent ran so brilliantly, our lobbying of local politicians, our successful launch and completion of
elections, our excellent web-site (www.qpr1st.co.uk) and our achievement of 625-plus members - 5% of the average home gate.

For the future, we have set ourselves a number of targets.

* We want to renew our links with the LSA and other supporters groups. The Hammersmith meeting made it very clear that this is what our members want.

* We will be sending out our questionnaire, asking for members' views on a wide range of QPR-related issues. This will be a crucial tool for us when we are dealing with the club because it means that we will be able to talk to the club about any issue with great authority. We will also continue our policy of calling instant ballots on individual issues.

* We will continue to lobby the club on behalf of small shareholders and we will sustain our quest for board representation for fans.

* We plan to produce a video which will promote QPR to the City, seeking to entice investors to the club.

* We aim to support the development of youth players.

* We will develop a QPR-supporter business directory, so that QPR fans do not have to put their money into the hands of non-supporters.

* We aim to increase membership to 10% of the average home gate.

All of these are aims we have for the coming year. But our core ambition is to demonstrate both to the club and to its investors that QPR already has a Centre of Excellence associated with it, its fan-base. QPR has turned a corner and we at QPR 1st aim to help push the club back up the ladder.

Hammersmith - our annual celebration of QPR-ness

Below is a message from David Price

As chair of both the Hammersmith Town Hall meetings, I have to say that having a hall-full of Rs fans cheering at you is a fabulous experience.

This time, Ian Holloway stole the show with an impassioned speech that would turn the heart of even the most granite-faced boo-boy. His was a message about hard work and commitment. He pulled no punches telling his audience that he wants players who are prepared to work their socks off. I interpreted Ian's underlying message as being, 'We're in a mess. We're digging our way out of it. With more hard work and commitment we'll get our pride back.'

But there was a message for we fans as well. That was just as simple and I read it as, 'stop whinging and get behind your team'. He spoke of the work that goes into developing young players, of how hard it is for youngsters who are just coming into the team and of how we, the fans, should be giving them the patience that they deserve. As someone who sits close to a man who froths at the mouth at the mere sight of Richard Paquette's name on the team-sheet, I know exactly where Ian was coming from. Let's stop picking on individual players and get behind them as a team.

Ian Holloway may have been the main event, but others had strong messages as well. To loud cheers, this fanzine's editor Dave Thomas, delivered a passionate call for the club to stop treating its fans with contempt. He railed against the way that we have been kept in the dark over the last year, demanding that, from now on, the club treats us with respect and openness.

My vice-chair, Justin Pieris produced a chart showing QPR's record of
end-season positions against the average gate in each season. In an
arm-waving performance that had more than one person thinking of Peter Snow or Magnus Pike, Juzza proceeded to demonstrate how our core support has solidified and what potential there now is for expansion as we rise back up from our present parlous state.

The mayor, Andrew Slaughter, reaffirmed his council's commitment to keeping QPR in his borough and to rebuilding QPR's fortunes. At the same time councillor Reg McLaughlin made it clear that the council would not sanction permanent ground-sharing at any of the three club's in the borough.

Perhaps the bravest appearance was that of chief executive David Davies. He could easily have turned QPR 1st's invitation down, and we gather was advised to do just that. Instead, he addressed the audience, giving an explanation of his initiative for taking the club out of administration and speaking with considerable passion about his plans to take the club forward. He emphasised his pride at having stopped the losses at the club and put it on an even keel and promised more of the same. Later, he was fervently endorsed by Ian Holloway as "a man I can trust".

The meeting finished with a surprising intervention by former Wimbledon FC chief executive David Barnard. He took the stand and described how he has been in talks with JR Ivan, a former-member of the Melzack consortium, about making a bid. His comments on the quality of the Ivan bid were not that positive, but he said that if the current management bid fails, he would join or lead a rescue attempt.

The bidders - what's on the table this month

As things stand, just after the Swindon game, we have just two proposals to take the club out of administration remaining.

In pole position is the current management, which is arranging a loan from an unnamed source of around £10m, secured against the ground. It is using this to pay off half of Chris Wright's shares and to reduce his shareholding to 20%, of which nearly 5% will be allocated to current acting chairman NickBlackburn. It says it will have sufficient working capital to run the club and manage the debt for at least the next three years.

This initiative is clearly favoured by Chris Wright, whilst the bids
sponsored by the Winton-Fitzgerald consortium and by Brian Melzack have fallen by the wayside. The Winton-Fitzgerald consortium is now in talks with the management team, which has 28% of the shares available for inward investors. The management is also believed to have had talks with JR Ivan. The management team. of David Davies, Nick Blackburn and Loftus Road director Ross Jones, expects to tie up the deal within 10-14 days.

Ivan meanwhile has his own bid on the table. He claims to have asked for, but been denied, a period of exclusivity, for his £20m bid. Rumours of planned purchases of players from overseas, which have been circulating widely, were dismissed to me by David Barnard.

David Price - Chair of QPR 1st.

A final word about the Hammie town hall meeting in this update. We owe a big thanks to many people for last Thursday's meeting. Firstly to everyone who attended, including Kevin Gallen, who turned up whilst the meeting was in progress, who signed one of our T-shirts, and then along with his brother, sat at the back for the rest of the meeting. Our thanks to all the guest speakers, and to everyone who brought raffle tickets and who donated prizes, particularly to the two fans who donated two £50 amazon gift vouchers and a bottle of House of Commons Whiskey that was signed by Tony Blair!

There were also various other signed QPR memorabilia, including tops signed by Richard Langely and Kevin Gallen, and a goalkeeper's shirt, that was Lee Harper's, and was signed by this season's squad. John McCooke kindly donated that shirt so thanks and hugs (courtesy of Tracy)to him for that.

We have yet to tot up the exact amount made from the proceeds of the raffle but we'll update once this has been done. Thanks to Austin Penn for the car/window stickers and also to everyone who helped beforehand with the setting up of the assembly room and helped with stewarding on the night.

And finally a big thanks to Phil Weller who donated a picture of Rodney Marsh's overhead kick during the 1967 league cup final. We hope to have a photo of the picture on the site shortly. Along with the Olly's cave banner, which was brilliantly designed by QPR fan Leo Phillips (which is shown on the frontpage of this website) and that was signed by Ian Holloway on the night, it was decided to hold an auction via the site, for both of these items. All proceeds to go to the QPR 1st funds.

Details of the auction are available here

Wednesday 10th April 2002

Games for Life Appeal

QPR 1st further appeal for the Games for Life Programme

The Games for Life Programme is a project run by an organisation called CHEP, for out of/after school youngsters in Zambia, Africa, during which important health issues, such as malaria and HIV, are addressed, as part of the football games project. Dan Cashdan, who is a QPR fan, currently works for CHEP and last Summer he asked for our help by way of holding an appeal for any football kits in order to give these children some suitable clothing.

Following the resounding success of the appeal that took place at the beginning of the season for these youngsters in Zambia, Africa, and the safe transportation of the goods over to Africa, photos were published of the children wearing the donated hooped football kits in both the matchday programme and on this website we thought it would be a nice idea to hold a further appeal, this time at the end of the season.

Once again a large kit bag will be available in the QPR clubshop on the day of the Brentford game, Saturday April 13th. If anyone has any football kit they no longer use/wear then please bring it along to the drop off point in the clubshop on that day. Any items will be appreciated, particularly shorts and footballs as well, of which they are particularly short on. Many thanks in advance and an update will appear in the next few weeks.

Also, if anyone has any goal nets that are no longer used could you let us know please? The youngsters have had to play their games without the use of nets so if anyone can help regarding this please get in touch with us on our info@ address (info@qpr1st.co.uk). See also Games for Life page

Friday 5th April 2002

Update

Details and a report on last nights Public Meeting will appear here later, in the meantime we would like to extend our thanks to everyone who attended the meeting and made it such a memorable evening. We have received many letters of support from other organisations, a selection that were read out at the meeting can be seen here.

Thursday 4th April 2002

QPR 1st Meeting with Council

Before the Easter break reps from QPR 1st met with Clive Soley MP, whose constituency covers QPR FC, Councillor Andrew Slaughter, the Mayor of Hammersmith & Fulham and a local Councillor, Reg McLaughlin. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the past year's events and to provide both parties of any recent updates regarding the situation at QPR.

We met in informal surroundings and we began the meeting by giving a little history to the political reps regarding the bidders who have bid for the club since being placed into administration, before ending with the latest news of the refinancing package involving some of the current management team.

The political reps were extremely interested in the history that we outlined and both Clive Soley MP and Councillor Andrew Slaughter were insistent that they would be willing to assist in relocating within the Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham if it ever came to that.

We explained a little about the Brentford situation and of current concerns regarding rumours of Brentford groundsharing on a long term basis. Again, they reiterated how they would be happy to help out as a short term thing but that they would object to any long-term groundsharing deals i.e. a 99 year lease with Brentford, because they have obligations to the local residents.

Concerns were expressed about fears of predators coming along in the future regarding the Loftus Road Stadium, QPR's biggest asset. Again Councillor Slaughter reiterated the council position and mentioned how the UCD (a local planning document pertinent to the potential development constraints regarding Loftus Road) has been strengthened recently. As things stand, luxury housing is most certainly not a requirement in the area.

A small discussion took place about local government, and some of the changes taking place within it. Indeed they did not dismiss the idea of purchasing Loftus Road and renting it back to QPR! Clive Soley also suggested that we ought to think about approaching the Sports Council about grants.

When asked, Clive Soley MP said that he would be willing to raise an early day motion in the House of Commons on a suitable QPR subject if required.

We'd like to take the opportunity to thank the Mayor, Clive Soley MP and Councillor McLaughlin for accommodating us. Clive Soley MP will not be able to make the public meeting on Thursday but did say that he would be willing to give us a message of support, whilst Councillor's Slaughter and McLaughlin have already confirmed their attendances.

Wednesday 3rd April 2002

QPR 1st meets board

QPR1st representatives met with the three board members who have proposed the latest initiative to take the club out of administation on Easter Monday Nick Blackburn, David Davies and Ross Jones were open and frank on many issues, but they were also adamant that some had to remain private because of commercial confidentiality. The three gave QPR1st an hour's meeting, just prior to the Notts County game.

The essence of what they are doing is to arrange for Loftus Road plc to borrow the money needed to pay off half of Chris Wright's debt, along with all other creditors. Chris Wright is writing off the rest of what he is owed, which QPR1st understands to be roughly £3.35m. This would be sufficient to take the club out of administration.

The loan is being arranged through a source about which the three refused to comment, beyond confirming that the lender is both an individual and a corporate entity. They went to great lengths to insist that the lender is not a threat to the future of QPR. Jones told us, "the person we are borrowing from is of no danger to the football club", whilst David Davies went on to refute rumouirs that it is Ron Noades, saying, "it is not Ron Noades. Or an agent of Ron Noades. Or even a facsimile of Ron Noades".

The amount being borrowed is equivalent to about two-thirds of the value of Loftus Road stadium, somewhere in the range £8-12m. The three say that they have already ring-fenced cash to meet interest payments for at least the next three years, indicating that the cash coming from the Fulham ground-share, along with anticipated season ticket revenues will achieve that. When pressed, they insisted that the deal was at a reasonable rate of interest.

The board have managed to secure this money with no apparent additional payback other than a reasonable rate of interest. Our highly experienced financial advisors assure us, it is usually the case that a lender will either have a vested interest in the business itself or want to take a stake in the business or charge a higher than usual rate of interest.

The corporate structure of the business will also change, although the three appeared undecided as to exactly how. Chris Wright retains a 20% holding, approaching 5% is set to be allocated to Nick Blackburn. There is a 28% block of unallocated shares which will be allocated to potential future investors. The three confirmed that they are in talks with the Wintons and Maurice Fitzgerald, but also say that they have others interested. QPR1st asked if there would be supporter representation on the board and was told that there would be, although how many places was not revealed.

QPR1st would like to reassure members that no individual would accede to any QPR-associated board (it is not clear if there will be one or two) without holding an election amongst its members. Meanwhile, it is consulting with Supporters Direct to see what options are open for this sort of position.

There will be no extraordinary general meeting, because what is being arranged is a loan, not a change of ownership. When the club comes out of administration, it will do so via an application by the administrator to the High Court. There will, however, be an annual general meeting fairly shortly after the company comes out of admin.

QPR1st asked about an apparent conflict of interest, between Weareqpr plc financing players on the club's behalf and taking part in the club's ownership. We were told that all decisions about players, whether buying or selling, playing or not, are Ian Holloway's alone. WAQ alone takes all of the risk associated with buying/financing any one player.

The three's initiative looks as though it will go through within a very short time. David Davies spoke of having the legal documents upstairs on his desk and Ross Jones of fast-tracking the lawyers to push the deal through.

We also raised the issue of Twyford Avenue training ground. Chris Wrights' public commitment to covenant a percentage of any future sell-on to QPR at last years' EGM. We have written to Chris Wright separately to ask him to clarify beyond doubt the position on Twyford Avenue.

For QPR1st, the main issue is to decide what to do next. Although there are questions still awaiting answers - the identity and motives of the mystery lender, the exact detail of the loan and the specifics in the business plan to pay it back over more than just the immediate years

we are fairly convinced that we have got as much information out of the three as we are going to get.

QPR 1st are not therefore in a position to properly evaluate the proposal. We have recently secured a mandate from our members to offer confidentiality to any bidder. We hereby offer the board that confidentiality so that they can feel free to fill in the critical gaps in their proposal.

As usual, on issues of such magnitude, we will be balloting members for their feelings for the new arrangement on the basis of what is currently public. Should we secure the critical missing information, that will allow us to give much firmer guidance to our members in any such vote. As ever, there appear to be more questions than answers.

Comments on this article please to info@qpr1st.co.uk

Tuesday 2nd April 2002

Sporting Rangers bid still alive

David Barnard, the ex Wimbledon Chairman is now heading the JR Ivan group's bid to take over Queens Park Rangers FC. Lawrence Selman and Brian Melzack are resigning from the group due to personal reasons.

JR Ivan stated to QPR 1st "Our bid still stands and we will be releasing more details within the next 24 hours. David Barnard would have day to day involvement in the running of the club, other members of the current board would be offered positions in Sporting Rangers"

JR Ivan also went on to explain that he has no interest in attempting to run the club himself personally and would prefer that the management of the club is left to those with the requisite football related experience.

March 2002 News