Caterham F1’s Tony Fernandes is a man of vision. He has ideas and turns them into reality, although sometimes this takes a little longer than he might have hoped. The Caterham F1 project has not been an easy one, but Fernandes pushes on, on the basis that it will help to build the Caterham brand so that his new road cars (built in association with Renault) will be well-publicised when they start appearing in a couple of years from now. He bought Queens Park Rangers soccer team with a view to using it to promote his AirAsia operation and has been working to build it up, despite a setback last winter when the team dropped out of the Premier League. The goal is to be back in the Premier League next year and QPR is (today) second in the championship, equal on points with Burnley. The team has just announced a major new undertaking that will see the current 18,000-seat Loftus Road stadium in Shepherds Bush being replaced by a 40,000-seat facility in Old Oak, just two and half miles away. Loftus Road is now prime real estate and the site will probably be redeveloped into housing. The new stadium, however, will be extremely well located and is part of a $16 billion regeneration project that will turn 100 acres of land into a new hub of activity. The work is expected to start in 2015 and the stadium could be ready by 2017. The Old Oak Common area will be a transport hub for HS2, Crossrail and the overground services, which means that there will be easy access to the stadium from all over Britain and even from Europe.
- Comment
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
joeblogsf1 
Joe,
Going forward, is there any chance you could substitute the word soccer for Football?
No, I am writing for an international audience. In America and Australia, football is not football, it’s football.
Yes, take your point but FIFA, UEFA, CONCACAF, OFA……
And those other sports are just butchered versions of rugby
And rugby is just a form of mediaeval warfare without the butchering – apart from the occasional ear or two.
mekanikal_grip, soccer’s a butchery, too! Webb Ellis is a myth; handling always was the norm; and soccer was a late aberration, not the origin.
What is it with this no-hands nonsense, anyway?! 🙂
But good luck to Team Loftus with their plans.
it’s officially football in australia now – the federal government dissolved “soccer australia” and created “football federation australia” in place thereof.
For what it’s worth, apparently, the technically correct word for football or soccer in this case is ‘Association Football’
Interesting article here on British v US use of words in sport: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22633980
And “soccer” is a contraction of Association Football, and was first popularised (in England) by Charles Wreford-Brown who captained England in 1894-95. Apparently it was in reply to someone who said they were going off to play Rugger (Rugby), and Charles responded that he was going to play soccer.
Hi Joe. Are you still on the board of directors at Caterham?
Read the blog rules.
Caterham’s list of sponsors is impressive compared to even the top teams, and especially when compared to Lotus. Mr F is clearly able to secure big names without endlessly drawn out negotiations that end nowhere.
Just wondering, Joe, what you make of Fernandes getting France’s top gong recently, when the great Prost was never given a roasted croissant?
Alain did not buy enough Airbus products…
Can you really call Airbus, GE, EADS and co. sponsors? Perhaps I’m wrong but I was under the impression that those logos appeared on the Caterhams as a ‘little added extra’ alongside major contracts to supply AirAsia. It’s not like a traditional sponsorship arrangement where an external company puts money directly into the team, such as Marussia’s relationship with what is essentially Manor Grand Prix.
If you buy enough planes, engines etc, you are one who gets the perks – so long as you pay for them!
F1 could do with more people like TF. No hype and BS, just gets on with it. I wish him well.
Got nothing but respect for Fernandes continuing on with his team… a lot of people would have jacked it in long ago in the face of the results they’ve had so far, proves he is in it for the long haul. Reminds me of a more successful Mr Mallaya.
Very different people.
In what way? I’d say from the outside that both have tried to build similar business empires but having never met them face to face I couldn’t possibly comment on them as far as their personalities go. From an outsiders perspective, I think Fernandes understands the bigger picture more, wheras Mallaya seems to enjoy the status of the here and now.
My uneducated view – one is rather brash, the other is Mr Fernandes.
Air Asia are an excellent airline. Fly them all the time.
But why do wealthy people feel the need to play with expensive toys? Boredom? Self-aggrandizement? Who knows?
It is a business tool.
I’m sure you’re more of a financial wizz than I, but I don’t think people use business tools to lose money, unless there are sound tax reasons for making this so.
The football club is a money pit. The F1 team? Well, you know how that’s getting along 🙂 The car company? With Reggie Renault involved somewhere they should manage to turn a profit, but there are easier ways to make a $.
The words ‘…a man losing focus on his core business’ spring to mind.
I don’t think you get what it is all about.
Oh, I get it.
Buying a football club to promote an airline (sorry, but even Emirates now seem to recognise there are better ways to spend x-million $’s) is about as logical a branding link as buying the Chinese table-tennis team to promote Arctic survival clothing. Sure, there may be a link, but it’s so tenuous as to be completely unfathomable to 99.999% of the population.
The HS2 is… errr… struggling? There’s already a rather nice ex-Olympic stadium with excellent transport links that they’re having difficulty passing on only a few miles away. And it’s football, for god’s sake! Football fans are hardly the demographic heading out to Asia to explore the beaches / culture / food.
Dato’ TF knows Asia. Why is he playing in the declining markets of the West?
It will end in tears.
Who is the biggest audience of Premier League football? Work it out..,
Yup. This is the whole point. Come have a look at any pub with a TV out here in Singapore for instance and check which sports is always on. And from which country.
Not in Taipei or Ho Chi Minh City it’s not.
Singapore is the pits. Too many drunken expats cluttering up the place.
Perhaps not but in general Asia is besotted with the Premier League – and likes to gamble on it.
If you want the last word on the subject of soccer/football, Google “football season”. That tells you all you need to know…
You are really keen about detail. You make a point of it.
Except when it comes to referring to football.
The sport is called football.
Do your history. The original name is football. Has been for more longer than any country that uses the term soccer.
The international governing body is FIFA. Football is part of the name.
Federation Internationale de Football Association.
You do a great disservice to the sport and the English language by perpetuating and promoting a name used in a minority sport country like the USA.
The correct name is Football. Respect that.
I’m sure you don’t respect people that refer to motor racing using the wrong terminology so why do you deliberately indulge in this for football?
Respect the fact that a bunch of people sitting on an island off the coast of France are not the only audience of this blog. There is a place called “The World” beyond the white cliffs where the word “football” means different things. So I use a word that differentiates between the different sports that use the same name.
You need to get out more.
Agreed. Here in Japan it’s also called soccer and there are 126m people here. Much more than England.
Twice as many…
Well, I hear there are about 190 million people in Brazil who call it futebol. I also hear they are hosting next World Cup. Usa and Japan had better get tuned in
That is enough football/soccer. The point has been made as to why it is referred to as soccer. I am not going to change that, so you will all have to live with it.
also; further to my other point, soccer comes from “association football” as distinct from “rugby football”, so it’s a valid name for the sport x
Sorry Stephen, you are wrong. The sport you think of as “football” is properly called “Association Football”, which is commonly shortened to “soccer”. It gets its name being the version of football that plays by the rules of The Football Association. The original football was a village-on-village slugfest that was banned at various points in its genesis due to fighting and deaths. Go look at the Medieval football page on Wikipedia for some background.
Picking up, carrying, scrums (in the true brawling sense) and kicking everything and everyone in sight were all fair game. The version played in early public schools was sanitised somewhat but was still much more brutal than today’s game. Some gents sat down and tried to make an upper crust-friendly, gentlemanly version that avoided bodily contact and set up an association to govern it.
This is the genesis of soccer. It certainly isn’t the original version of the sport, and goes a long way to explaining why soccer is actually the only mainstream version of the game where handling the ball doesn’t form an integral part of outfield play. Rugby football, both Union and League, American football, Canadian football, Gaelic football and Australian Rules football all value manual dexterity.
Englishmen used to use the term “soccer” just as widely as everyone else, and it is in fact a word of British origin. After all, the association that gave the sport its name is The Football Association (note the definite article takes a capital?) still the national governing body in England.
Are you saying Caterham will be fighting in the mid-field this year? Like every year gone by?
No. I am saying that is what they are striving for. Everyone in F1 strives to get better. It is normal.
Jeez…. I know it’s for comparison but please could you not discuss b*****y football in an F1 blog – do it on a football blog !
It is a reflection on the man. Not about football.
Football is as relevant to Caterham as Air Asia and Airbus – very relevant to Fernandes big picture.
p.s. Sauber and Chelsea link shows other people recognise benefits from linking sports.
I must say it’s interesting to contrast the B2B success that appears to be around Fernandes and Genii who clearly stated buying Renault/Lotus was all about B2B but based on current finances hasn’t worked.
Thank you Joe – these little stories about the behind the scenes stuff are what those of us who never comment keep coming back for. It certainly gives me a deeper understanding of the sport i love.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
I’m in total admiration (jealous) of Tony Fernandes’s sporting ambitions but I can’t help but think he’d be better focussing on the F1 team or the football club for the time being as whoever seems to be advising him doesn’t appear to be doing him too many favours.
The F1 team generally makes noises every year about fighting in the midfield and hasn’t really threatened it as yet. The ambition is admirable but does leave it open to ridicule. Being in F1 might increase brand awareness for Caterham but does finishing last really help or hinder?
The football / soccer team was responsible for arguably some of the most reckless spending ever seen in world football last season, Moneyball it wasn’t. With the financial fair play regulations The Mail (admittedly, not the greatest source) suggests that QPR could be liable for a fine in the region of £60M for overspending.
TF’s ambitions are admirable but I hope he’s being better advised in this than he has been in the past with QPR – although with London property prices he probably can’t lose.
Thanks Joe – great insight
Personally, i can’t stand football/soccer – but it fascinates me how the guy uses the sport to develop his empire
Im late to this, but as an f1 fan and a QPR supporter i think TF is terrific. he’s using his money wisely (although hiring hughes was hard to swallow) , however the re birth of the youth policy, new training grounds etc, he’s doing everything that the previous owners were nor prepared to do. They havnt panicked, but picked themselves up, hired Harry and all looks healthy. His attitude and treatment of the fans is also greatly appreciated. We love him.