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QPR agree to £42m settlement after breaking Financial Fair Play spending rules
QUEENS PARK RANGERS have taken a £42million hit and been slapped with a transfer ban after ending a four-year legal battle with the English Football League.
The Championship club was accused of breaking Financial Fair Play regulations during the 2013-14 season, which saw them promoted to the Premier League, when a wage bill of more than £75m represented an astonishing 195 per cent of turnover.
The dispute was finally brought to an end when Rangers owner Tony Fernandes accepted a £17m fine and a transfer embargo for next January.
The Hoops also had to pay the EFL £3m in costs, and their directors write off £22m of outstanding loans.
Rangers had initially been fined £42m, and an arbitration panel later dismissed their claim that FFP rules were unlawful.
The Championship club pulled out of a final appeal due to be heard this month and instead cut a deal with the EFL that saw the fine element reduced and payments structured over 10 years.
Rangers chief executive Lee Hoos said: “We never want to be in this situation again.”
The club’s latest accounts, from 2017, showed 64 per cent of turnover went on wages.
Bournemouth and Leicester have already paid fines £4.75m and £3.1m respectively for less dramatic overspending during promotion seasons.