Amit Bhatia appointed QPR Chairman

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Boardroom, Community, QPR1st

QPR Supporters’ Trust congratulates Amit Bhatia on his appointment as chairman of the club.

We hope this appointment will be a move towards a new relationship of partnership between the club and its supporters.

Amit Bhatia was chair of QPR in the Community Trust from 2009 to 2016. Under his chairmanship the Community Trust thrived – it became a registered charity and developed innovative and wide-ranging projects to change people’s lives.  It is now one of QPR’s great achievements.

Tony Fernandes’ time as chair and co-chair of the club has been controversial and led to the current financial constraints facing the club.  He was happy to tweet – which did not always clarify issues – and occasionally chatted with supporters, but was rarely able to take part in any form of structured dialogue with supporters.

We would welcome more genuine dialogue between supporters and the new chairman – including meetings so all the challenges and opportunities facing the club can be discussed freely and honestly.

FFP Settlement

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Boardroom, Media, QPR1st

“QPR1st, the QPR Supporters Trust notes the joint QPR-English Football League statement on the settlement which entails: A fine of £17m, QPR to pay the EFL’s costs of £3 million. A transfer embargo in the 2019 January transfer window. The club’s shareholders will capitalise £21.965m of outstanding loans. A payment schedule has been agreed between the parties which will avoid endangering the financial stability of the club, with the fine being paid over 10 years.

No part of the payments to the EFL will be taken into account when calculating QPR’s future profitability and sustainability results.”

https://www.efl.com/news/2018/july/efl-statement-queens-park-rangers/

QPR 1st is glad that this sad and extended saga has finally come to a close. The bottom line is that QPR broke the Financial Fair Play rules. Whether or not the fine was excessive and unfair, or too small (as some may say) we will leave to others. But QPR is now living in a new era of small transfer and wage budgets and living within its means.

Over the past three seasons, under the leadership of CEO, Lee Hoos, QPR has indeed been cutting back. With the end of parachute payments, and no big transfer sales seemingly on the horizon, this now must continue.

 

We truly hope that for Tony Fernandes and the rest of the QPR Board, it truly is a case of “lessons learned!”

Mark Bircham

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in All News, Community, QPR1st

QPR 1st Supporters’ Trust echoes the voices of all QPR supporters in wishing Mark Bircham all the best for the future and thanking him for his hard work at the club. His departure from the club has been announced.

A supporter of QPR “through and through” Marc has has served the club as a player; giving 100 per cent on the pitch. And, whether as youth coach or as part of the first-team coaching staff he gives 100% pitch side and on the training ground too.

We are pleased the club offered him a position – helping to bring young players through from the academy to the first team – but we absolutely respect his desire to move on in order to continue working at first team level.

We love you Bircham!

Safe Standing Campaign Launch at Loftus Road

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in All News, Community, Supporters Direct

Members of supporters’ trusts for QPR, Brentford, Fulham, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U were at Loftus Road to hear the shadow sports minister announce Labour’s support for safe standing to be allowed in Premier League and Championship grounds.

Also at the launch was 17-year-old Owen Riches, the Ipswich fan who started a petition in favour of safe-standing. This gained 112,000 signatures and means the issue will be debated in parliament later this month. Local Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter also spoke.

We hope all parties, and of course, the government, join in allowing clubs to give football supporters the choice of sitting or standing safely.

And well done to the club for hosting the launch.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/08/labour-party-backing-safe-standing-english-football-stadiums

Thank You Ollie

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in All News, Boardroom, QPR1st
Thank you is the message from QPR1st Supporters’ Trust to Ian Holloway, who has “left” the club.

 We would like to thank Ian for all his hard work and dedication to Queens Park Rangers Football Club.  Of course supporters have a range of views of his recent time as manager; but he was tasked with the job of keeping the club in the Championship with a team in transition, and he achieved this.  He had to keep the show on the road in an environment where the wage bill had to be cut and experienced players would leave the club.

Ian cared passionately about the club; and increasingly that passion has been demonstrated by the players.  We are very pleased that he was able to bring into the first team a number of young players of real promise. He has changed the culture of the team so the players really seem to care about their performances.

 We think it is deeply regrettable that stories about Ian Holloway’s sacking and the identity of his likely successor appeared in newspapers well–before the official announcement of his departure. It is unacceptable if, as is likely, the press where informed by a club source. No employer should “leak” the imminent sacking of an employee . To do so to someone who has worked so hard over so many years is especially inexcusable.

 Ian Holloway has dedicated years of his life to the club as a player and twice as manager. We wish him all the very best.

 We trust the new manager will have been selected following a thorough recruitment process.

Safe standing: sign & share the petition!

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Community, QPR1st

Message from the Football Supporters Federation

Safe standing was in the news again this morning as the Premier League claimed that only 5% of fans want to stand and actually use a dedicated standing area for 90 minutes – apparently backing the Sports Minister’s claims about the safe standing campaign being a “vocal minority”. Their claims were immediately challenged by supporters across the country and those in the Football League, such as Brentford FC, who sell out their standing accommodation week in, week out.

Since the minister’s decision to block a safe standing pilot at the Hawthorns last week, momentum has gathered behind Owen Riches’s safe standing petition on the Government’s official petition page – surpassing 70,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Now we’re urging all of our affiliates across the divisions to back the petition and share it among their memberships. It takes 30 seconds to fill in and sharing it across your social media and other networks could help it reach that all-important 100,000 mark.

If you support Safe Standing please sign and share the petition at the link below

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/207040

R.I.P Super Ray Wilkins

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Community, QPR1st
Our thoughts are with the relatives and family of Ray Wilkins whose death was announced today.  He made a special contribution to our club, making 213 appearances as a player and, of course served as manager too.
He was a key part of one of our most successful teams and will live long in the memories of QPR supporters.

Supporters’ consultation committee meeting

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Community, QPR1st

The next QPR Supporters Consultation Committee meeting is scheduled to take place w/c 29/01/2018 . Representatives from QPR1st will be attending. if you have any issues that you would like to be raised during the meeting please let us know via info@qpr1st.com by Friday 26/01/2018.

Metropolitan Police Football Unit Meeting

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Community, QPR1st
The Metropolitan Police’s football unit is meeting with representatives of football trusts on Thursday evening. QPR1st will be represented.  On the agenda are discussions on anti-terrorism arrangements and on child protection.
Are you aware of any policing issues you would like us to raise? If so, let us know on info@qpr1st.com.

Olympic Stadium Deal

Posted on by QPR1st Posted in Community, QPR1st
QPR1st has been supporting the Olympic Stadium Campaign, made up of football supporter organisations, calling for openness on the deal that saw taxpayers money supporting West Ham at the former Olympic stadium. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has now said he will take control of the London Stadium in order to “renegotiate deals” and “minimise ongoing losses”.
The campaign has released this statement today:
After several years of hard work by the OS Campaign, we have achieved disclosure of information we were told could not be published, and achieved an inquiry appointed by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. That inquiry has reported this morning, detailing the ‘mismanagement of London [Olympic] Stadium finances by the previous Mayor’ (Boris Johnson): https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/mayor-london/our-publications/independent-review-olympic-stadium
Huge credit must go to the 14 organisations that have made up this campaign, and continued to work on it whilst the story disappeared from the headlines.
This doesn’t mark the end of the campaign, but it does finally place in the public domain, the recognition of one of our central arguments.
Top