London: Tony Fernandes may not be the Premiership’s most conventional of owners.
But having seen their club lurch from one crisis to another in recent years, Queen’s Park Rangers’ fans have witnessed an element of boardroom stability return at the west London club in recent times. In spite of all his efforts, however, Rangers find themselves languishing second from bottom of the English Premiership table, with their top-flight survival anything but guaranteed. It’s a situation that hurts Fernandes, who accepts that he continues to learn the business of football. However, the 48-year-old is keen to assure fans that come what may, he remains committed to the club for the long term.
“Nothing good is easy, we just have to deal with it. I need to understand, I need to learn. Some guys have been watching football for 35 years – money can’t buy that. Of course you’re going to get criticism along the way, you’re going to get people pi**ed off, it’s very frustrating, I feel the same way too,” he told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
Despite their side’s dismal season, Rangers’ fans have certainly taken to Fernandes’ long-term vision. On a home match day, it’s not unusual to see the Malaysian owner mingling among the Loftus Road crowd, who continue to chant his name during matches. What’s more, unusually for a relegation-threatened club, there hasn’t been any hint of a ‘Fernandes Out’ campaign.
With his commitment to a new stadium and training ground, Fernandes is well on the way to transforming the club he refers to as “a raw diamond, in a fantastic part of London”.
Just off the Uxbridge Road, it isn’t hard to see what Fernandes is referring to, as fans walk past properties costing upwards of a million pounds, in a very diverse part of London.
With recent high-profile incidents of racism in football, however, Fernandes accepts that more could be done to make football truly inclusive. His recollections of his early years in London were very different from those images he sees now.
“I don’t think it’s inclusive at all, it’s quite the opposite. It has to come in at all ends, with players coaches and managers. You only have to look at what South Korea and Japan have done. It depends on the development in each country, right? I think players can come from anywhere, so no I would say it is not inclusive,
“I know there’s the John Terry incident and all these things, but look, I watched West Ham in the 1970s and these days, it’s very, very different. I haven’t had one bit of racism as a chairman from both home fans and away fans,” he said.
Fernandes is also the high-profile owner of Air Asia, and how that airline came to be is also a story of his determination to succeed. And this from a man who admitted: “I didn’t think I had the balls to be an entrepreneur, to be honest.” However, those early misgivings would change to good effect.
Fernandes told of being a homesick schoolboy at Epsom College unable to visit his family during the UK school holidays, due to the peak-time travel costs involved. That experience would later form the foundation of the low-cost, no-frills airline, which he would start years later in Malaysia. Fernandes’ potential business acumen would not always be recognised, however, as he revealed during the challenging time in his early career at Warner Music.
“I was just frustrated at Warner Music. I couldn’t stand the management. Given the opportunity, I would have embraced the internet; I did not like the fact that we did not embrace the internet. I was all in favour of working with [music-sharing program] Napster, for instance, and I’m right, the music industry has been decimated.
“You’ve got to know your market. Most CEOs do not understand their market and that’s what causes the problems.”
Fernandes is getting to know the realities of the football business, and having controversially sacked previous mangers Neil Warnock and Mark Hughes, is now relying on Harry Redknapp to secure Rangers’ Premiership survival.
There have been 24 player arrivals since Fernandes’ August 2011 takeover at Loftus Road, with French striker Loic Remy and Christopher Samba among those who joined Rangers in the January transfer window. Given the billionaire-benefactor models at Chelsea and Manchester City, for example, the harsh financial realties of life at QPR means the trained accountant is under no illusions as to where he sees Rangers financially. “All my businesses have to be built on real business. They have to sit on their own. There has been a [financial] injection obviously, but it can’t go on forever.”
Before we part company, I ask Fernandes for his thoughts on the lack of south Asian talent in the Premiership, and whether the football authorities could do more to help in this under-representation.
“You know I don’t believe in that philosophy,” he says. “I think that if you want to play football, you go and play football. And I think what you see now in India, there will be talent. It’s just exposure. It will happen,” he predicted, citing his own country’s example.
“I’ve brought teams over here featuring 15-year-olds who have beaten Manchester United teams. It’s just from 15 years onwards, we don’t have that infrastructure, so I have no doubt [we can succeed]. It is just exposure, and being given the chance. Look 20 years ago, I supported West Ham, there was one black player, Clyde Best, but look at [the top leagues] now. The world is changing, and it’ only a matter of time [before we see other minority races flourishing].”
