QPR could be in trouble

[lewyman633]

It will be interesting to see if they follow this through - view external link

[Manofpride]

I think it'll just be swept under the carpet, especially with them being a London club. It's one rule for one and one rule for another!

[Fletch_11]

I'm not sure it can be swept under the carpet based on the current rules. At the end of the day they effectively cheated to gain an advantage - the bolox being spouted by Fernandez about not having enough time to fall in line doesn't cut it for me. They managed to find £4.5m to buy Charlie Austin after getting relegated after all and find his wages for that season as well as a few others!!! His goals made a big difference to their chances!
Unless they stay up for the next 30 years or pay the fine then the Football League would have 24 other teams to answer to who, presumably have been getting their house in order at a cost of blatantly flouting the rules - even Forest seem to be trying to comply!
Imagine they did drop out of the league upon getting relegated - I bet they'd find the £40m to stop that happening if it looked likely! They will probably appeal until their fate this season is sealed secure or not and then decide what to do I reckon

[lewyman633]

harry will get his lawyer to sort it out ;-D

[Rattea]

It's a fair point Fernandez makes about relegated clubs need time to sort their fanances out. When we can down took us three years.

There should be a sliding scale based on percentages of reduction year on year to being in the rules within four. And that runs in lane with the parachute payments that say four years to get rid of the added expenditure.

Even if you cancel contracts you have to pay large lump sums off.

[Ramondo]

I disagree with you on this one Rattea.

The rule is the rule, Wigan managed to do it and they'd been up for much longer.

When we came down we were still suffering from the after affects of the 3 Amigos, but that was our problem and not everyone else's.

If Fernandez was arguing about being given a slightly bigger allowance for the first year to give a bit more time then I'd have some sympathy.

However, any club outside of the Premier League long term elite is aware that at the beginning of each season, a potential relegation battle may happen. Or the following season, no matter how confident they may be. So to lumber your club with a wage bill as ridiculously high as they did is a massive gamble.

The thing about gambling is to understand the risk, accept it and never risk more than you are prepared to lose. They gambled, they risked too much and it didn't pay off. It is no good bleating on about it afterwards. I guarantee you as day is opposite to night, if QPR had come within budg

[roger_ramjet]

Agree with you Ramondo. Whilst Rat may have a point that the rules are iniquitous, they were the rules in place at the time and QPR will have known that and should have planned accordingly. Any experience based changes in the future cannot be applied retrospectively as that would be unfair on the other 23 who complied.

[Rapid]

relegated to the conference?

there's a lot of sensationalism going on here and from the guardian...who'd of thunk it.

complete and utter rubbish. it's the first case and they were relegated so a hefty fine is fair as that's what a majority vote agreed when they put the rules in place. if they don't pay it's more likely to go down the transfer embargo route.

[roger_ramjet]

Ben: I think the point is not that they would be relegated to the Conference, but rather that the Football League would not accept their registration for the Championship (or leagues 1 and 2) with the fine unpaid. Thus if they are relegated from the Premier league, the highest league whose rules they have not violated is the Conference.

Whether the Conference would accept them is a moot point, and, even if they did, and QPR won promotion that season, they would have the same problem gaining admission to league 2 with the fines remaining unpaid.

Thus they are between a rock and a hard place - if they perform badly in the top flight this year, unless they negotiate the fine with the Football League (and its not yet been established as to exactly how much it is, I believe) - a league who owe it to ALL their other compliant members to be tough on QPR - they could easily have nowhere to play in August 2015.

Even if the Conference took them - and it would probably be good for their crowd

[clough08]

I've no sympathy. They cheated us out of promotion by ignoring the rules. If they don't pay I for one will be behind a ban or similarly hefty sanction.