Briatore won't risk QPR future

Rangers supremo has big hopes

By James Evans   Last updated: 10th September 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Briatore won't risk QPR future

Briatore: QPR ambition

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Queens Park Rangers chairman Flavio Briatore has told skysports.com he will not gamble with the future of the West London club and searches to create the ultimate football boutique brand.

Supporters have been surprised by a lack of transfer activity over recent months, but Formula One supremo Briatore, who is worth an estimated £70million, has restated his belief that the Loftus Road outfit must first balance the books before realising their aim to return to the Premier League for the first time in 15 years.

"In the short time myself and my partners have been involved in English football we have realised that we must be very careful about our financial responsibilities," he told skysports.com.

"We are following a sensible business model because the Championship is a dangerous league in which it is very easy to see large amounts of money leave the club unless it is invested wisely.

"There is no wage cap which means that clubs may gamble and lose - we don't intend to do that. It's not what we want."

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Rangers spent virtually nothing on players over the summer, though have attracted a batch of promising youngsters from Italy and Spain thanks to Briatore's links with characters such as Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon.

"QPR have spent less money than anyone, and we haven't paid a fee for a player since January; indeed we realised a positive balance of £400,000 for transfer dealings over the summer," he continued.

"It puzzles me that people are talking about QPR as a club spending lots of money as that's not the case.

"We are still in the process of attracting investors, not exclusively because of their financial power, but because we want them, as people, to be part of our programme."

And Rangers have made an encouraging start to the new campaign - inspired in no small part by Real's Daniel Parejo and Emmanuel Ledesma from Genoa - losing only one of their opening four matches.

Briatore restated his desire for Rangers to become the ultimate 'boutique' football club.

"Step by step we have been putting money into facilities so as to create a unique brand and concept; in essence a boutique stadium," he added.

"It is an exclusive side of football that will rely on service, style, the ability to look after people and an insistence on playing the game the right way. It is all part of our plan, and we must make sure we do things the right way."