QPR risk Football League expulsion

LONDON — English Premier League side Queens Park Rangers (QPR) could be thrown out of professional football if they refuse to pay an outstanding multi-million-pound Financial Fair Play fine (FFP), the chief executive of the Football League has warned.

Shaun Harvey revealed that the league could deny QPR permission to play in its competitions, in the event the club carried out their threat to contest their punishment — expected to be up to £50 million (S$101.7 million) — for breaching its FFP regulations.

That would mean QPR being cast into the footballing wilderness of the non-league Conference if they were relegated from the Premier League.

Even if they avoided that doomsday scenario, the league could also kick them out of the League Cup from next season.

Discussing the prospect of denying the club entry to Football League competitions, Harvey said: “I would hope there would be resolution long before that option even had to be considered. The one thing for certain is that most clubs (in the Premier League) will become a Football League club again.

“Now QPR will, of course, be hoping it does not happen for some considerable number of seasons. But the chances are that they will return to the Football League fold at some point in the future.”

QPR’s Malaysian chairman, Tony Fernandes, declared during their Championship playoff triumph last season that he would “fight” any attempt by the Football League to fine his club over the losses they incurred during the campaign, which violated the FFP regulations.

QPR racked up record losses of £65.4 million during the 2012-13 campaign and last season’s figures are also expected to make grim reading following their relegation and loss of Premier League television income.

The club must submit those accounts to the Football League by December, with any sanction to follow early next year if they have exceeded an £8 million limit.

However, the numbers involved are not as staggering as the amount of money that is currently floating around in the Premier League.

The increasing gap between the wealth of English and Italian club football was revealed by a survey, which shows that AC Milan’s wage-bill is now below QPR’s most recently published figure.

While spending on Premier League wages is at an all-time high following Manchester United’s signing of Radamel Falcao on £265,000 a week, a trend of declining pay in Italy is confirmed by research in the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.

It lists the salaries of every professional player in the Italian league, with all clubs’ total wage bill put at £680 million, which is lower than it was five seasons ago. The Premier League collectively spends three times that figure on wages.

This is starkly illustrated by Ashley Cole being listed as earning £35,000 a week at Roma compared with his salary of over £150,000 at Chelsea. Other strikingly low wages, at least by the standards of England and Spain, include Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba, who earns £23,000 a week.

The Juventus squad is collectively the best paid in Serie A at £95 million annually, although that is below all the top six English clubs.

The wage-spend of QPR during their doomed Premier League season of 2012-13 (£78 million) is more than the figure reported this season for Milan, Napoli, Lazio or Fiorentina. AGENCIES