Briatore says slow and steady wins the race for QPR

After a new sponsor raised hopes for fans of English Queens Park Rangers, owner Flavio Briatore said he and other stakeholders would not just randomly pump money into the club, ala Roman Abramovich and Chelsea.

"We are not throwing away our money at all. Don't be confused," he said at a news conference to announce a five-year GBP 20 million deal with Italian clothing company Lotto. "If the shareholders are wealthy, the club is still the club; we try and put the club together in the right way.

"What we have done until now is the demonstration that we are not throwing away money at all. We are not the new blood in football. It is completely wrong to compare QPR with Chelsea. We want to do it our way."

The deal with Lotto, which is the biggest in club history, has capped a nice run for QPR. Briatore bought the club in Sept. 2007, in a deal that included Bernie Ecclestone, who tried to buy Chelsea before bowing out to Abramovich. Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who ranks as the fourth richest man in the world by Forbes' count, also has a stake.

Briatore said, while the goal is to return QPR to the Premier League, he will do it step by step and not rush things.

"Next year we try to improve the position of the club but there are no miracles," Briatore said. We want to consolidate the club, to create a good base. We are working to make sure that if we go up, we are not like an elevator that goes up and down.

"You can only build a tower with a strong base. You can't build a tower on sand. We don't deal in fantasy, we deal in reality."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.