QPR are Now the Richest Club in the World, Sort Of

By: Daryl | December 22nd, 2007

QPR boss Step aside Roman Abramovich. Steel magnate and richest man in Britain Lakshmi N. Mittal has just bought a 20% share in Queens Park Rangers. With $32 billion in his pocket, Forbes rank Mittal as the fifth richest man on the whole planet, making a relative pauper out of 16th placed Chelsea owner Abramovich, who has to struggle by with just $18.7 billion in his account.

Obviously Mittal won’t be pouring all his pennies into QPR (the SuperHoops would be unrivaled financially if he did) but with Formula One moneymen Bernie Eccleston (worth about $5 billion) and Flavio Briatore (about $120 million) also owning the club, there’ll be no shortage of cash to throw around at Loftus Road.

And they’re going to need it. Not so long ago, in the early to mid-nineties, QPR were a respectable top division side with Les Ferdinand and Trevor Sinclair leading the charge. But now the club dwell near the foot of the Championship.

If Mittal, Ecclestone and Briatore do look to spend some money in the January transfer window it’ll be interesting to see who comes in. Spending when you’re already a Premier League team (like Chelsea were when Abramovich took the reigns) is relatively easy. But though footballers will famously follow the money, they won’t be so keen to follow it to the lower end of the Championship.

I remember back when Jack Walker started pumping his fortune into Blackburn Rovers the club made a bid for Spurs’ legend Gary Lineker, to much hilarity in the football world. Blackburn settled for David Speedie and Kevin Gallagher, got themselves promoted, upgraded to Chris Sutton and Alan Shearer and then won the Premier League (still the only non-Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd team to do so.) But the biggest signing they made was to bring in manager Kenny Dalglish.

Current QPR boss Luigi De Canio has made a so-so start to life at Loftus Road, and has a history of not spending long at any of the lower level Italian clubs he’s managed. So with the extra millions that could be available in January, De Canio may soon feel himself under pressure.