EPL side Queens Park Rangers "could be playing in front of a few hundred fans on tiny grounds in football's backwaters," according to Mike Collett of REUTERS.
That is the ultimate sanction facing Harry Redknapp's west London team "if they are relegated back to the Football League" and fail to pay a potential $64.9M fine "for being deep in the red last season."
The club's majority shareholder, airline boss Tony Fernandes, who is worth an estimated £500M ($814M), has said that "he will challenge any fine imposed by the Football League under its Financial Fair Play rules and even refuse to pay it." But if Rangers go down, the Football League "will at the very least take a long hard look at their financial situation and take action." Although QPR have Fernandes as the majority shareholder, and the Mittal family, worth an estimated £14B ($23B) by Forbes magazine, owning a third of the club, QPR "face potential trouble."
Their perceived "crime" was to lose an eye-popping £65.4M "in a doomed attempt to stay in the Premier League" in the '12-13 season, "before spending a similar amount last season in trying to gain immediate promotion back" (REUTERS, 9/16).