QPR coach says wealthy owners investing wisely

Queens Park Rangers' billionaire owners are not like "kids in a sweet shop" and are building the English Championship (second division) club into a force to be reckoned with, said manager Iain Dowie.

He told Reuters in a telephone interview the owners were not splashing out on expensive signings but treating the club as a long-term business venture by acquiring young players with potential, revamping the stadium and courting sponsors.

"They have gone out and got big sponsors which will help the club in the future, they have done the ground up so making a much more commercial enterprise," said the 43-year-old, who was appointed QPR manager in May.

The west London club, a founder member of the Premier League in 1992 before falling on hard times, announced a five-year £20 million ($39.03 million) sponsorship deal with Italian clothing company Lotto in March that was its biggest ever.

"It is not similar to kids in a sweet shop... they're doing it for a long-term objective as well, which is very important," said Dowie, who has also managed Coventry City, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace and Oldham Athletic.

QPR fans have been boasting that the club is now one of the wealthiest around since it was bought by Renault Formula One boss Flavio Briatore last September with a group of friends including F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, who ranks as the world's fourth richest man according to the Forbes magazine list, has also taken a stake in the Loftus Road club.

Since the new owners took over, QPR has been on a much more stable financial footing and last week announced it had repaid a £10 million loan taken out in 2002 to help QPR come out of administration which it entered the year before.

"QPR can now go forward and they can spend the money on the ground, which looks much more ship-shape now," said Dowie.

He said QPR was also benefiting from its owners' contacts. This month they signed 19-year-old Spanish starlet Daniel Parejo on loan from Real Madrid, a deal many put down to Briatore's relationship with the Spanish club's president Ramon Calderon.

"I went to watch the Italian Under-21s... put together a list, went to see Flavio and subsequently we got Emmanuel Jorge Ledesma and Samuel di Carmine," said Dowie.

Midfielder Ledesma, a 20-year-old Argentine, and Italian striker Di Carmine, 19, have agreed one-year loan deals from Genoa and Fiorentina respectively, with QPR having the option to buy Ledesma for three million euros ($4.64 million).

Briatore contacts

"Briatore has used his contacts in Italy and Spain to get three very, very talented players and that's a fantastic bonus," added Dowie.

The QPR manager quashed media speculation that he and Briatore were at odds over player signings, saying he had found the Italian billionaire to be "very supportive".

"He has been down to the training ground three or four times and no more in the pre-season so he leaves me to get on with the coaching side absolutely," he said.

"He is not controlling or anything like that at all."

QPR have enjoyed their share of success, having won the League Cup in 1967 as a third division side and finished runners-up in the top flight in 1976 in the days of England players like Stan Bowles and Gerry Francis.

They were relegated from the Premier League in 1996 and even slipped into English soccer's third tier in 2001 but Dowie said the new owners had pushed QPR back into the limelight and raised the fans' hopes of a return to the top flight.

"It's a pressure but you have got to embrace that pressure and it is far better to come to a club with expectations rather than without them," said Dowie.

"We are a little way away from achieving our aim of being in the Premier League but we are going to try as hard as we can."