PETALING JAYA, Nov 21 — UK’S Daily Mail has chided Queens Park Rangers owner Tony Fernandes after the aviation tycoon rubbished the daily’s report over possible record-breaking fines the club could face.
Its chief sports news correspondent Nick Harris, who wrote the article last Sunday, found it “interesting” that Fernandes had described the story as “rubbish” and “gutter press”.
Harris said: “Fernandes is telling QPR fans to ignore it (the article) but gives no details at all about what is wrong with it. He does not list one single factual inaccuracy.
“We asked the club directly and the chief executive Phil Beard to comment on the story before it went to press. We did this several times over two weeks before publication including telling QPR and Beard exactly what our story, based on excellent sources, was going about.”
Haris, had in his email to The Malay Mail, explained his article which was picked up by numerous other newspapers and portals.
The Football League can only levy sanctions against clubs under the newly-introduced Financial Fair Play (FFP) rule in January 2015.
“These will be in relation to accounts filed for the current playing season, which we are not halfway through yet,” said Football League head of communications John Nagle in an email to The Malay Mail.
Harris had reported that clubs will only face a fine if they breached the permitted threshold and got promoted to the Premier League.
He wrote that QPR could face a fine of £62 million (RM320 million) — the biggest in British football history — due to the alleged losses by the club last season, believed to be £80 million (RM413 million).
It was reported that the huge debt was due to the massive wages of several QPR signings. Among them were South Korea’s Park Ji-sung, Frenchman Christopher Samba, Englishman Jermain Jenas and Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
The players were reported to have earned salaries of more than £100,000 (RM514,000) per week.
The club was relegated to the Championship this season and is currently lying third behind Burnley and Leicester City on 32 points.
