Lee Hoos

CEO isn't he?

Financial guy at heart though, and probably better suited to the Financial Director or CFO role. That's where we are as a club though. Nothing is more important at the moment than managing the finances.

Bit of a mad situation for a club of our size. CEO, DoF and a Technical Director all stood looking over the Managers shoulder. And we wonder why things ain't working out? A decent owner could do all of those jobs with a strong manager underneath him.

A hands on, clued up owner is a CEO mate. Only reason we need one is that Tony is a cretin!

Of course mate, but we are a small business. We are privately owned, have less than 100 staff, about 15,000 - 20,000 regular customers and a turnover of less than 20m quid. Tell me another business of that size and scope that needs a board of Directors and C Level employees like ours?!!

We are not Man Utd, Arsenal, Spurs etc. The running of our club is pretty straightforward - Don't spend more than you earn, win enough games to stay in the Championship every year. If you look at Tony's supposed pedigree as an entrepreneur, it's pretty criminal he needs 3 guys sitting below him to manage these simple ambitions. 

Ok, so I stand corrected on number of staff. I can't think why we'd need 174 staff though. I can only assume some of those are part timers who only work on match days. As for turnover, it will be significantly less than 30m in the next set of accounts I'm sure. My point remains, we are a small business.

I ain't arguing with you on Hoos by the way, he's the one guy that I wouldn't want to see go. Whether he is a genuine CEO or not is a different argument. The point I am trying to make however is that if TF knew what he was doing, he wouldn't need to surround himself with so many Executives/Directors etc. I also struggle to see why both a DoF and Technical Director (or whatever Ramsey goes by these days) is really necessary. Given where we are financially, surely it's about time at least 1 of these positions is considered redundant?

I think I saw a survey recently (it may have even been on here?) where basically every club in this Division made a loss last year.
Meanwhile Spurs declared a profit of nearly £139m the other day. No wonder everyone wants to be in the hallowed land eh!

Lee Hoos interview in The Times.

Lee Hoos: It’s almost a race to the bottom – which owner runs out of cash first

The QPR chief executive tells Gregor Robertson about his club’s preparations for the restart and how the football landscape has coped during this pandemic



“It’s been a long time coming,” says Lee Hoos, the Queens Park Rangers chief executive, who has just pulled down a seat — socially distanced of course — in the Loftus Road lower. After a three-month hiatus the Sky Bet Championship is back and Barnsley are the visitors to west London tomorrow.



Out on the pitch, the groundsman’s lawnmower chunters across the lime-green grass. A few rows down, an incongruous sight: a two-foot high weed, sprouting through a crack in the concrete, peers over the hoardings. Scores of flags, donated by fans this week, have been draped across empty seats nearby. Not since the 2-2 draw with Birmingham in late February has anyone sat in these stands, and supporters will, of course, be absent again this weekend.



Every so often, however, the chorus of thousands of R’s fans wafts through the drizzle. Hoos smiles. “I wasn’t a big fan of piped-in crowd noise, but we’ve hit on a company [Autograph Sound] that’s actually done a really good job for us,” he says. “We came down last Thursday to listen to it, and when you close your eyes, it does sound like a match day.



“They plan to do very QPR-specific chants, and the players, hopefully, will feel that … make them feel a bit more at home. Players adapt. The ones who adapt best will do best in this nine-game run-in.”



Three weeks ago, you may recall, Hoos said he was “appalled” by the EFL’s announcement, without any consultation with clubs, of a June 20 start date that gave players little time to prepare for nine games in 33 days. “[It was] probably less about the date than the intensity,” the former Fulham, Southampton, Leicester City and Burnley executive says, striking a more conciliatory tone. “To be fair to the League they talked with the clubs after that, the communication was fantastic, and they did the right thing, dropped that first midweek game, allowing players to recover.



“The guys came back in great shape, but it’s one thing to run, it’s another to play football. That’s where you get the muscle strains and the injuries. We’ve had a couple of weeks to work with the football now so let’s keep our fingers crossed.”



Their match-day routine will be transformed. “Our car parking has been cut in half, and we didn’t have much in the first place,” Hoos says with a laugh. “Then it’s about [planning] the quickest route possible into the stadium, as opposed to the traditional route where they come down the pavement. Social distancing in changing rooms: if you’ve seen our changing rooms, you cannot fit 11 people in socially distanced, so we’re using one of our big lounges for the away team.



“We’ve brought in a Portakabin and hooked up showers for them to use. Our players are going to be in both the home and away changing rooms. It’s about keeping numbers to a minimum, managing risk.”



The absence of fans, however, will be the biggest change and the financial outlook without match-day revenue is bleak. QPR were, not so long ago, leaders in a crowded field of financial basket cases in the second tier. In a decade during which the club were twice promoted to the Premier League, they managed to incur losses of more than £200 million, breach financial fair play rules and, in June 2018, were handed a £42 million fine by the EFL.



Hoos has slashed the wage bill and the club have not paid a fee for a player since 2017, relying instead on free transfers and nurturing young talent. Last season, QPR’s wage-to-turnover ratio was 69 per cent; the league average is 107. Does Hoos, then, believe those efforts have better prepared QPR for a more straitened future? “Yes and no,” the American, who has worked in English football for more than two decades, says.



“The problem is, even if you are on an even keel financially, the fact that you have liabilities but no income coming in, it starts to sink you anyway. Right away you have to move back to shareholder funding, because you don’t have any income stream coming in to cover your costs.



“The way it looks to me right now, it’s almost like a race to the bottom: which owner runs out of cash first. If there’s no money coming in, all you’ve got is the central broadcasting deal from the league, sponsorship deals, which could also be in jeopardy. Most club’s season tickets would have gone on sale already, but it’s very hard to push season cards when you can’t even tell them a) when it’s going to start, and b) if they’re going to be allowed into the stadium. So a lot of clubs are in a very precarious situation right now.”



QPR have been working on contingency plans for what a socially distanced Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium would look like if supporters are allowed back into reduced-capacity stands next season. “We’d probably be looking at 3,700, or 3,800 people in here,” Hoos says. “Cleaning and sanitising costs would go up; policing costs, you would hope, would go down. We’d have to open the whole stadium, so stewarding costs would remain the same even with reduced capacity. While I don’t like the idea of playing behind closed doors, it’s certainly better than not playing at all.”



Nearly 65 per cent of QPR’s fans, Hoos says, have waived a refund on their season tickets for the remaining nine games. “The vast majority have taken up the option of a free streaming service. I’m positive that’s being replicated across football. For most fans football is like a religion; it’s important to support that church and make sure it stands. Not every fan is fortunate enough to be in that position. Some needed the refund because they’ve been severely affected financially but the support of football, across the community, I think, has been fantastic.”



QPR have the benefit of a fruitful academy that has nurtured a number of sellable assets of late. The mercurial Eberechi Eze, 21, is drawing covetous glances from Premier League clubs. On the other wing, Bright Osayi-Samuel, 22, is perhaps the Championship’s most improved player. Will QPR be forced to cash in one or more players this summer?



“It goes with the territory that if you’re a developing club, and someone shines, when an offer comes in that’s right, you take it,” Hoos says. “We’ve never made any secret of that. For QPR, that will absolutely be our model going forward: developing talent, whether that’s some rough diamonds we collect from other places, or through the academy. That really is our DNA.”



Hoos agrees that the pandemic has been a wake-up call for football. “We couldn’t keep going the way we were, so it really is time we reboot,” he says. He supports a salary cap, which is expected to come into force in all three EFL divisions this summer, but not, he says, to “level the playing field”. “Someone like a Leeds United, a massive club, should be able to spend more money than us. I don’t have any problem with that. If there’s a maximum cap, it doesn’t mean we will necessarily spend that amount of money. For us, it’s about sustainability. Trying to gear [expenditure] to revenue.”



Hoos has been heartened by the way QPR and football have rallied to support communities during this crisis. “People must be sick to death of quizzes! But we’ve had some of our old players come back and do [online] quizzes, which have been very popular,” he says. “We’ve run educational pieces. We’ve had our club ambassador, Andy Sinton, analyse games and goals. We’ve highlighted training and development programmes that are available. Our club doctor has been brilliant, sharing [his advice] with the fans.



“The community department has been facilitating food banks, which have been really hard hit in terms of donations. They’ve actually had to move premises, because the amount of food we distribute has increased massively. That in itself shows the perilous state of affairs people are in right now. Football gets a lot of black eyes, but football has really stepped up to the mark during this pandemic. Everybody — fans, staff, players, ex-players — should all be proud.”

It’s all well and good Lee Hoos saying the club have been not spending on transfers since 2017 but how much money has been spent on loans ?

At least the Indian variant is easily spotted with its garishly bright colours

One helpful thing from that interview is that it’s puts all this FFP has been scrapped next season to bed. Quite clearly from that as it stands it’s not

He's always going to spin it to damp down any expectations of investment.  The main points: FFP sanctions are far more challengeable now than previously (courtesy of the CAS  / Man City precedent)  and the level of sanction has declined since we got done. At the same time, the rewards for promotion have massively increased. That's why yo yo clubs like Norwich and Fulham are prepared to take a level of risk. They know that although technically they sail very close to the wind the return will massively outweigh any possible sanction.

Look at Derby. Bang to rights, EFL/FFP running scared to impose the relegation sanction, and when they finally decide to deduct a few points - guess what. They still have the right to appeal.


When Hoos speaks, he always spins a line, that's what he's paid for. The truth is we're still butt hurt from fucking it up so badly that we're still running scared. But the world has moved on since then. 

New government reforms in football being discussed.

www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/premier-league/12598769/we-need-cohesion-qpr-chief-executive-officer-backs-government-football-reform

Just been told by a mate Hoos was on Paul Finney's podcast. He sent me a little summary of what he said:

Things he says basically Ferdinand and Ramsay running the show, Lee Hoos is the money man. He's been told to save every penny, we are literally fucked, we can't even have half time entertainment cos we need to save the pitch we can't afford.
New stadium happening no time soon. If new stadium will mean moving out the Borough.
We are on the edge of ffp which is why we keep loaning out the youngsters to get a percentage if thier wage and we will be looking to sell chair willock field etc.
They said to him the club is stagnant, not going anywhere and he said spend per head is up so we're moving forward lol.

Just thought I'd share. If anyone has any more to add to that feel free.
Looks pretty bleak.

So due to restrictions on capacity we close to ffp. So team will be shit so can’t attract extra footfall income. Might as well keep dopey and go down