NEWS ROUND-UP

Monday 9 February 2004 

Good news and bad news on getting extra money in from hosting other clubs at Loftus Road. Wasps have a high-profile Heineken Cup quarter-final against Gloucester on 11 April and had considered moving it to Loftus Road or the Madejski Stadium to maximise gate receipts, but in the end they decided to keep it at Wycombe. Chief executive Alistair McLean said: "We looked at Loftus Road but QPR are playing on Saturday and Fulham on Monday and they just couldn't put on three matches in three days." 

The good news is that, according to the Notts County matchday programme, the Socceroos have now confirmed Loftus Road as the venue for their international friendly against South Africa on 30 March. Let’s hope the board have driven a hard bargain to maximise income from this fixture. 

400-500 Antipodean passport holders took advantage of the Southern Cross promotion to watch the Notts County game from the Lower School End. When announcing this deal in the Brighton matchday programme on 17 January David Davies had said he hoped to attract 1200-1500 Australian and New Zealand spectators. 

This month Parliament will start to consider whether there should be a “fit and proper person test” for football club directors, and Radio Five Live broadcast a documentary on the subject yesterday. Rangers featured large, with David Davies telling the story of how convicted criminal Giovanni Di Stefano wrote a letter on prison headed paper offering to buy QPR when we were in administration.  Ex-QPR director Philip Englefield, who was struck off as a solicitor and imprisoned for seven years in 1993 for stealing £4.7m from clients, was cited as another example of why people should be screened before they are allowed to join football club boards. You can listen to the documentary on the BBC website here. Boardroom Blues notes that QPR have never announced the reason why Lyndon Fuller left the board of directors last year.

Finally, it seems that plc chairman Ross Jones will now be able to concentrate on the league. He left his position as Chief Executive Officer of Bright Capital Ltd at the turn of the year and is said as a result to have much more time to spend on QPR.


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