I Had An Uncle Who Once Played For Crvena Zvedza

Title is completely irrelevant, I just couldn't help myself. Even more cryptic than that, the confusion over QPR's current financial status grows ever thicker. It seems to be generally accepted that unless the Rs can cough up £1.3 million to the taxman by the end of the month, they will go into administration and suffer an immediate 10 point deduction. It is also accepted that right now they don't have the readies, despite the recent sale of Lee Cook.

Everything after that is speculation. You can find a lot of reports collected here. The gist appears to be that Paladini (Fat Tony #1 if you like) was negotiating the deal with Briatore (FT #2), part of which entailed that he (FT1) would remain as operating chairman. However, this deal short-changed fellow directors Caliendo and Zanotti (FTs #3 and 4) for their shares, so they nixed it, and are instead trying to set something else up which is more favourable to them, if less so to the club. How it ever came to become this episode of the Sopranos is such a long story ...

We can only hope that some kind of consensus is reached, with the incentive that administration would cost everyone involved a lot of money, unless (as has been suggested by anonymous commenters) Caliendo is in bed with the ABC corporation which may be able to take ownership of the ground in the event of a complete meltdown.

In the circumstances, busting out of the Carling Cup to lower-league opposition as per usual seems almost a footnote. We can only hope that all this Italian intrigue is sorted out one way or the other, even by means of stilettos and kisses of death, or the whole club might end up sleeping with the fishes.

Oh, and in other news, Roy Keane kicks ass.