Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

It's more important than the revelation of Archie's killer on Eastenders (does anyone care?) and far more significant than Tiger Woods saying he is sorry on American TV.

It's been announced tonight that Flavio Briatore has stepped down as chairman of QPR, two and a half years after buying into the club with Bernie Ecclestone and then bringing in further investment from steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and his son-in-law Amit Bhatia.

He will be replaced as chairman of QPR Holdings by Ishan Saksena, who was appointed as managing director of the club last December and sporting director Gianni Paladini will take the role of chairman of QPR FC.

Briatore and QPR have suffered a fairy torrid season and sections of the Loftus Road crowd have called on Briatore to quit the club since the turn of the year.

With all eyes looking towards the Premiership at the start of the season, the stated aim of Briatore and his fellow owners, things have gone from bad to worse on the pitch and the club currently sit just one point off the relegation zone.

That's not been helped by events off the pitch though.

At the end of last year, Briatore became embroiled in a Formula One race-fixing scandal which put in jeopardy his ownership of QPR. His name was only cleared by the decision of a French appeal court on January 5 and that ruling is still subject to a further appeal from the FIA, Formula One's governing body.

On top of that, public utterances about fans criticizing the board and the sale of a number of popular players, with little in the way of long-term replacements, left Briatore unpopular with sections of the Loftus Road crowd.

At the last two home games, a number of anti-Flavio chants were heard and following the 1-0 defeat to Scunthorpe on January 30, several hundred QPR supporters demonstrated outside the ground with calls for Briatore to quit.

"My three years as chairman of QPR have been an exciting and incredible experience," said Briatore tonight.

"I'm proud to have helped save this historical club and to have contributed in paving the way to its future success."

Both Briatore and Ecclestone will remain as shareholders in the club.

I will hopefully have a lot more on this news and more on Ishan Saksena over the next few days, not forgetting the fact that QPR still have a vital game against Doncaster Rovers tomorrow.