QPR take out £15m loan - and will get £60m if they go down

Posted Wednesday, April 17, 2013 by The Sun

TONY FERNANDES secured a £15million loan for QPR last month — but will also get record parachute payments if they are relegated.

Money for teams losing their Premier League status is set to increase beyond £60m next season.

That will soften the blow for those threatened with relegation — with QPR and Reading on the brink of the drop.

Clubs relegated into the Championship are currently guaranteed £48m over four years but that is set to hike following an improved TV deal.

Fernandes has recently insisted he is committed to QPR in the long term despite fears of financial trouble if they go down.

Boss Harry Redknapp arrived at the club in November and admitted some players were getting overpaid.

Moves were also sanctioned for big earners like Loic Remy and Chris Samba in the January transfer window - but they are still staring at relegation.

And it has emerged Fernandes secured a loan from Barclays Bank in Hong Kong last month.

It is believed to be his first major borrowing since he took over the club at the start of last season.

QPR will lose the prestige of being a Premier League club if they fail to close the 10-point gap on the teams outside the bottom three.

And parachute payments are designed for relegated clubs to cope with life outside the top flight.

Premier League games are getting screened on the NBC network in America from next season in a deal valued at £167million.

The new contract is THREE TIMES higher than the previous deal to show Premier League games in the US, with NBC out-bidding both Fox and ESPN to cover soccer for the first time.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "Fundamentally, this is a market of huge interest to our owners. The plans these guys have are a big step for us." English clubs spent the most on agents in 2012, with FIFA processing £38m in fees in international deals.

Player representatives took £106m in fees from clubs — at 28 percent average commission — as they took a bigger cut than ever.

Italian clubs paid £27m and Russian clubs £15m, and agents also banked payments from players which FIFA’s system doesn’t record.

FIFA does not yet monitor transfers between two clubs in the same country, such as Manchester United’s £22m purchase of Robin van Persie from Arsenal.