Queens Park Rangers are on course to be hit with the biggest fine in British football history, which, in a worse-case scenario, could top £60 million.

 

Ironically, it will be imposed because of the amount of money they are losing — believed to be a huge £80m for last season — and will compound their financial troubles, perhaps sparking meltdown.

 

They have racked up big debts and massive annual losses largely through signing dozens of players on huge contracts in recent seasons, including Chris Samba, Park Ji-Sung, Julio Cesar, Jermaine Jenas, Loic Remy and others, most of whom remain on the club’s books, draining their resources with contracts worth up to £100,000 a week.

 

If QPR are promoted this season, the fine will be levied in January 2015 by the Football League under their new Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, which will see overspending clubs ‘taxed’ on their losses.

 

Rangers are currently favourites to go up to the Premier League from the Championship this season. They could avoid a fine — or at least postpone it — if they fail to get promoted. In that case, they will be hit with a lengthy transfer embargo.

 

The mathematics are complicated, but in broad terms, Championship clubs will pay a £1 fine for every £1 they lose over £18m in the 2013-14 financial year.

 

Sources familiar with QPR’s financial situation have told The Mail on Sunday that the club will post losses for 2012-13 of about £80m. The club are not obliged to publish those accounts until next spring and have declined to comment.

 

Rangers are two-thirds owned by Malaysian businessman Tony  Fernandes and one-third by the  Mittal family. Fernandes’s majority shareholding gives him ultimate power and it is he who sanctioned the hiring of Mark Hughes and then Harry Redknapp, allowing both to sign large groups of players.

 

It is expected that the club will record another massive deficit for the current season, and it is the losses in 2013-14 that will be measured to calculate any fine.

 

If QPR’s losses for the season are £80m, the fine will be about £62m. That would equate to roughly all of QPR’s Premier League income (if they are promoted) for next season. Even if 2013-14 losses are as ‘low’ as £60m, a fine of more than £40m would follow.

 

‘This is the first season in which clubs will ultimately face sanctions [for over-spending],’ a Football League spokesman told The Mail on Sunday. ‘Clubs have to submit their accounts for 2013-14 to us by December 1, 2014, with sanctions levied early in 2015. If a club being sanctioned are in the Premier League by then, the fine will need to be paid.’

 

QPR’s accounts for 2012-13, in which they were relegated from the Premier League, have not been made public, nor will the club confirm when they will be. Asked to comment on their expected losses last season and this season, and on the potentially destructive fines, a Loftus Road spokesman said: ‘The club will be making no comment on [these] matters at this time.’

 

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the Football League plan to donate fines levied under their FFP rules to charity. It had previously been expected that fines paid by overspending clubs would be shared among clubs who stayed within the rules and did not lose huge amounts while trying to ‘buy’ success. But a senior FL source says giving the fines to charity is now the preferred option ‘for a number of political reasons’.

 

The last publicly available accounts for QPR relate to the 2011-12 season, when they made a loss of £22.6m, had debts of £89m and a wage bill that had almost doubled year-on-year from £29.7m to £58.4m.

 

That huge wage bill was before they signed high-earning players like Samba, Park, Rob Green, Junior Hoilett, Ryan Nelsen, Jose Bosingwa, Julio Cesar, Stephane Mbia, Remy and Jenas.

 

The wage bill for QPR’s relegation season is expected to be about £90m, or, by itself, about 150 per cent of the club’s total income of about £65m. A ‘sensible’ wage ratio is closer to 50 per cent of turnover. They have cut some costs since last season, releasing or selling 11 players in the summer including Samba, Bosingwa and Anton Ferdinand. 

 

But they also signed eight new players on permanent deals and loaned three others including Benoit Assou-Ekotto from Tottenham and Niko Kranjcar from Dynamo Kiev.

 

QPR’s income will also have plunged between last season in the Premier League and this season in the Championship, largely through reduction in TV money.

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They will hardly be building a new stadium if they get hit with that. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch

Should be double for those f**kers

A fine for losing too much money? Surely a points penalty is more appropriate?

 

Begs the question, if offered the £60m fine or a points penalty, which do you think they'd take?

A fine for losing too much money? Surely a points penalty is more appropriate?

 

Begs the question, if offered the £60m fine or a points penalty, which do you think they'd take?

I genuenly  think they would take the fine. A points penalty could potentially stop them from getting promoted but a fine whilst in the short term it hurts them in the long run if they were to get back into the premier league they would probably make that money back up through tv money etc. 

Tony Fernandes is a fascinating person, it's like he literally wakes up in the morning trying to find new ways to throw away his money, as I said, fascinating character.

Scummy club who think they're bigger than everyone else.

 

I always cringe when I see the "WE ARE QPR" and "THIS IS LOFTUS ROAD" signs around the stadium. Awful club, disgusting fans, and a clueless owner. Rot in hell QPR. 

Sincerely hope this happens, they epitomise what it means to lack class. Could not happen to nicer bunch of fans to be honest.

A fine for losing too much money? Surely a points penalty is more appropriate?

Begs the question, if offered the £60m fine or a points penalty, which do you think they'd take?

I agree about the points penalty; a fine would hit hardest at the clubs who are really struggling financially while a wealthy club like QPR might be able to swallow it. A points penalty would be a much fairer punishment, and would have the added bonus of probably keeping QPR out of the premiership for the foreseeable future.

Personally I would give them both the fine AND a points deduction. They are scum, I absolutely detest them, and they want a new 40,000 stadium at Old Oak Common? That has to be a joke, they couldn't even sell out Loftus Road when they were in the Premiership. Muggy two bob excuse of a club, hope they miss out on promotion which will hopefully mean even bigger financial losses for them and an even bigger fine than £60 mil. Would absolutely love that to happen.

Just out of principle, how exactly is it useful to fine a club for losses? Would that not lead to a situation where the club goes further in debt, the cost of borrowing becomes higher and the problem gets worse?

 

Which genius thought that up?