A tear up between board members old and new had been predicted but the QPR AGM 2007 passed off peacefully.

This was my first AGM personally and I was kindly smuggled into the meeting as some kind of proxy thanks to Tracy Stent while the registrars continue to scratch their private parts and look puzzled at my requests to have my father's completely worthless shares transferred to my name.

An interesting morning trying to wade out of Sheffield (we're applying to be classified as one of the great lakes you know) on the imploding rail network meant I was fairly tight for time but I did make it to the ground for about half past one. There was excitement and trepidation among the people I spoke to before the meeting, rumours of former board members turning up and causing a fuss filled the air as we entered the Members' Bar - looking resplendent with the ageing metal chairs on reinforced plastic floors.

I sat myself down about six rows from the front and a short time later the top table started to fill up with, from the left as I was looking, directors Kevin Steele and Nick De Marco, Chairmen of the holding company and football club Antonio Caliendo and Gianni Paladini, team manager John Gregory, and the club's accountant Akin Yilmaz as well as another gentlemen who was named in the introductions but, thanks to the sound system from hell, just about everybody missed. He was later identified as "Mark the finance officer" which was very helpful.

The gentlemen at the top table took it in turns to speak into the world's most inept microphone which cut out randomly in the middle of sentences and left those towards the back, including one very vocal lady, slightly upset that they couldn't hear what was going on. The first half of the meeting, largely because of this dodgy sound system, was a bit of a farce to be honest. Half the room couldn't hear what was being said and all the questions asked were missed by everybody apart from those sitting in the immediate proximity of the speaker. Some people chose to introduce themselves with their names, and stand up to speak, others sat down with no introduction. In the end I was very pleased to be sitting near the front where I could at least tell what was going on, those at the back must have been reflecting on a complete waste of an afternoon.

Kevin Steele took the microphone, although we may be prosecuted by trading standards for calling it that, first of all and informed the crowd that four resolutions were to be voted on: approval of the accounts for the year ending 2005, approval of the latest set of accounts for the year ending 2006, the re-appointment of Antonio Caliendo as chairman of the holding company and the approval of the reappointment of the club's auditors. Kevin then said that a question and answer session would follow split into on the pitch and off the pitch matters. Unlike a fans forum none of the questions were pre-submitted so this was a real chance for the critics of the board to get them on the record with specific answers to the key questions surrounding our club at the moment. Fireworks were anticipated.

Kevin stated that the members of the board were doing their best for the club but that they are all human and may have made mistakes in the past. Nevertheless they were all 100% behind QPR and were desperate to see the club succeed.

The first item on the agenda was then addressed which was to approve the revised accounts for the financial year ending 2005. These were of course approved at the last AGM but were not signed off and it subsequently transpired that alterations had been made to the accounts after the meeting. Akin Yilmaz, who has had the unenviable job of sorting through the club's financial affairs since the departure of Chris Pennington, explained that the only difference between the set of accounts approved by the last AGM and the final copy was the wording in certain instances. These accounts had now been approved and signed off so they wanted to vote to approve them again, with the alterations made.

A shareholder sitting near the front pointed out that before such a vote was taken it would be nice if we could actually see the final copy of these accounts and Akin offered to provide a copy for anybody that wanted one who got in touch with him.

Somebody asked if the difference in the accounts was linked to the change of auditors and Kevin Steele said that Rothman Pantell had been auditing their books for many years but this had been changed for one reason or another. The club wanted to change back because they appreciated the company's knowledge and experience with the football club so that's what happened.

At this point a lady sitting halfway back down the room, who had been very vocal to the point of being rude to this point by constantly shouting out and complaining about the sound among other gripes, stood up and demanded the board tell her how they could possibly organise a football club when they couldn't organise their accounts. Kevin Steele said that there had been a cock up rather than a conspiracy and mistakes had occurred.

Despite this the first motion, on the 2005 accounts, was put to the vote and passed.

The next item was the latest set of accounts, for the 2005/06 season in which Rangers had started under the guidance of Ian Holloway, and finished fourth bottom of the league with Gary Waddock as manager. Kevin Steele gave a quick overview of the accounts, stating that losses had increased from £2.5m to £3.3m and another £2.6m had been loaned to the club by the directors during that time. A far more detailed overview of the accounts is available from the supporter's trust QPR 1st.

Kevin said that the projected loss for the season just gone, 2006/07, was £2.6m which he said showed they were continuing to progress towards a break even point that could be achieved for the 2007/08 season if the current projections prove accurate.

The club is confident of reaching an agreement as soon as next week with the Inland Revenue over the much publicised tax bill and subsequent winding up order which would then be cancelled. Kevin said that the Inland Revenue, contrary to popular belief, is not an easy organisation to deal with and it tends to make demands on snap assessments and then come back to them later to see if they are accurate. At one time it had been fairly relaxed with football clubs and allowed deals to be struck on repayments, and staggered payments to be made, however a change in the law means that it is no longer the preferred creditor and it has therefore become quite "antagonistic" towards football clubs.

So far so predictable but then Harold Winton decided the time was right to get up and say a few things. He began by saying he was behind the current board's efforts completely and that the club would not have survived to this point without Paladini and particularly Caliendo to whom he offered the "utmost congratulations" for his work for the club so far. He then referred to paragraph 25 of the annual report and financial statement - post balance sheet events. Listed here is the sale of Danny Shittu to Watford for £1.6m, the purchase of Dexter Blackstock from Southampton for £500k, and the acquisition of Zesh Rehman from Fulham for £250k.

Harold said that this section did not include the sale of Dean Parrett to Tottenham, a deal he said was originally agreed between QPR and an agent acting for Tottenham as a £2m transfer which would clear the club's debt with the Inland Revenue. At the last minute, and for reasons never quite established despite questions on it later, this amount dropped to £1m with a 25% sell on clause. Harold Winton was very keen to point out that the Winton's had not gained a single penny from this move despite acting as advisers to the boy and assisting in the deal.

Harold continued, by now facing the rest of the audience from his seat on the front row rather than the board members and finance people at the top table, speaking of the considerable financial assistance and support his family has provided for QPR during recent years particularly in the signing of Danny Shittu from Charlton - a unique arrangement which Winton said West Ham had attempted to replicate this season with their Argentine internationals and made a complete "cock up" of.

Winton stated that, contrary to some reports and stories he has heard and seen, his family had not taken a penny out of the club despite the sale of Shittu for a substantial profit and the money they were owed because of that would be going straight back into the club for a player they already have earmarked. He said it was unfair and unreasonable after everything he and his family have done for the club to spread rumours and stories about them and he would continue to do everything he could for the club. John Gregory remained unmoved, and apparently paying very little attention to Harold's ever lengthening speech, and all in all looked thoroughly fed up with proceedings until later in the afternoon when he held his own question and answer session about on the pitch matters.

Once Harold finally paused for breathe Paladini took on the chocolate-fireguard-like-microphone and asked to clarify with Harold what money the club owed him and if he agreed that a payment of £650k was owed to him on the 15 August this year. Harold had of course already said that any money taken from the club for profits made on players like Shittu would immediately be ploughed straight back in and once Paladini had finished his question Winton became quite angry, waving his arms around in the air and banging his fist down on the top table at one stage.

Winton enthusiastically trotted off the occasions he'd put money into the club - for Doudou, and Danny Shittu, and to pay off David Davies and "£85k to some bloke who was suing us" and another quarter of a million last September/October. It was all getting rather exciting, if a little surreal, by this stage. Winton finally concluded by saying he was "fed up with the lack of proper respect for my support for this club."

A shareholder asked if the liability to the Wintons was correctly stated in the accounts. Director Nick De Marco said everybody acknowledged the work Harold and his sons had done for the club and that negotiations over exact figures were ongoing between Alex and the club. Harold was straight back in at this point asking why the Parrett sale was not included in the post balance sheet events of this year's accounts.

Mark the finance officer, again apologies for the lack of a surname, said that the move had happened too late, after the auditors had worked on the accounts, and it will all come out properly in the accounts released this time next year.

In amongst the madness it was declared that Charlton were entitled to 25% of the money received from Watford for Shittu, while QPR were entitled to 10% of any profit Watford make on the player. So 10% of whatever Watford sell him for minus £1.6m to put it simply.

Returning to the issue of Dean Parrett a gentleman asked why, if £2m was agreed between QPR and the agent acting for Tottenham, did QPR only receive £1m. Gianni Paladini took this question on and you can make your own mind up whether it was answered or not.

Paladini said that a few clubs showed an interest, including Chelsea who had sent representatives to see him play. QPR offered Dean a professional contract but he didn't want to sign it. Chelsea offered £400k for him but the boy didn't want to go there. A few weeks later Tottenham showed an interest and Paladini said he asked them for £3m but they weren't interested in him for that amount of money. Paladini alleged that Alex Winton then spoke to the club and said that Dean would like to speak with Tottenham as his family are Spurs fans. The club didn't want Parrett to go anywhere and were in fact preparing to make him the youngest player in the club's history by using him from the bench later in the season. The family told the club in January that they wanted Dean to go to Tottenham and off he went.

Alex and Harold Winton on the front row were clearly quite agitated by this and Alex said that the Parrett family had no longer felt welcome at QPR because in November Gregory and Paladini had taken Dean aside and advised him to sign for Chelsea.

Paladini fired back by saying the Winton's had told the club Parrett would walk out for nothing in November 2007 anyway and the Football Lague tribunal rules would have rewarded QPR with between £150k and £200k only.

The Winton-Paladini argument had now been going on for more than 20 minutes and was in danger of taking over the entire meeting. It had caused voices to be raised so everybody could at least hear what was being said but that was the only positive. The row was broken up by a question from the back of the room posed by Dave Morris who of course was accused by Paladini of hiring a gang of heavies to force his resignation at gun point. He was acquitted at the resulting trial.

Morris said that if there was a loan due to the Wintons, and Alex was negotiating over this, then it wasn't shown in the 2005 accounts and they were therefore incorrect. Kevin Steele said the 2005 accounts had already been discussed and agreed and they had already discussed the Winton loans.

The next point from the floor came from a gentleman sitting near Harold Winton at the front of the room who said he really wanted to share the board's confidence for the future and was pleased the accountants had seen fit to sign the club off as a going concern but with mounting debts of more than £20m and no real sellable assets we were "some going concern" and how could he be confident for the future in the current situation.

Mark the financial man said: "Here are the accounts, one year and 15 days later here we are. That's a going concern."

Nick De Marco then said: "We have to look towards new investors. We are working day and night to attract investment."

He went on to say there are a number of interested parties but in the meantime next season the television money is increasing and our outlay on the playing budget is decreasing. The current board are happy to sell their shares at 6.5p and the unsecured loans they have made to the club will not be called in until the club reaches the Premier League. He said that millions of pounds were needed to take the club forward and people with this pot of gold tended to get into that position by being cautious with money - not investing in football teams.

The board was asked for a comment on the latest position regarding the ABC loan. Kevin Steele took this one on and said that when he'd arrived at the club he was very confident of getting the loan renegotiated and that he felt 10% interest was quite steep for the time it was taken out. However since then the club has been around numerous banks and hedge funds and none of them are willing to loan to a football club because if the worst came to the worst they'd get terrible publicity for being the ones that closed down a football club, and the ground has a planning covenant on it preventing it being used as anything other than a sports ground and is therefore pretty worthless to a lender should they end up in possession of it. They'd explored the possibility of refinancing part of the loan at a better rate but all in all, with interest rates rising all the time, 10% interest in Kevin's words is "not the unattractive deal it once was."

Paladini then jumped in and again reiterated that if somebody came in who could take the club forward he would not stand in their way and would in fact put the money paid to him to buy him out back into the club. He said people had invented stories about him demanding a double your money deal to leave and until anybody else comes forward the current board will continue to back John Gregory and push on for a good, successful season next campaign.

The board was asked to remind supporters of the terms of the ABC loan and interest rate, and what ABC would do with the ground if the worst comes to the worst and we can't repay them in 10 years time.

Kevin Steele said they hadn't discussed with ABC what they might do with the ground should it come into their possession. He said the club received word in April that the interest rate on the loan would increase to 11.5% and that this was not repayable within five years - although he felt this latter point may be invalid as lenders are not allowed to tie borrowers into a loan they cannot escape from. Kevin said this was interest only loan, much like one you may take out on your house.

Finally the 2006 accounts were approved with four objectors in the room.

The third item was the re-election of Antonio Caliendo as Chairman of the Holding Company - a motion that was passed quickly, without opposition and followed by a round of applause.

Kevin then sarcastically said that the moment we'd all been waiting for had arrived, the fourth item - to re-appoint the auditors for another year. After re-appointing Caliendo in the blink of an eye I thought this fourth item would fly through as well but one shareholder seemed keen to explore exactly what our current auditors do for the club, whether they are competent, what experience they have and how much they cost us. Kevin Steele said they'd been with the club for nearly ten years and they weren't involved in other football clubs as far as he was aware, but there was never a suggestion they were not thorough. Nick De Marco said the auditors charged QPR £15k for the service which is good value for money compared to a company like Deloitte who may charge a six figure amount.

Ultimately nobody voted against, the motion was passed.

A five minute break and wrestling match with the increasingly diabolical sound system followed before the meeting was opened up to questions from the floor.

The first question was about what exactly Deloitte had done when they came into the club and how much they charged us. The board stated that Deloitte conducted a one off financial review at a cost of £40k and the report had been absorbed by the board and taken into consideration.

Dave Anderson from Rebuild QPR then pointed out that the last five years seemed to have gone awfully quickly and he feared the next five would as well. He asked what happens once the ten years on the ABC loan is up if the club still can't pay it off. Kevin Steele said that in that time we may get promoted and have a nice windfall to solve the problem that way, if not they would have to go out and re-mortgage the loan when the time comes. He said they were hoping for success on the field.

Paladini again reiterated that the board is willing to speak with anybody who can come up with the money to move the club forward. They're not in a rush to leave but they're all ears if anybody wants to come forward.

Geoff Gibbs from QPR 1st asked about the new television deal. Paladini said the exact amounts would be in the official announcement on the 18th (presumably of this month - i.e. Monday) and he couldn't say until then. However he said it was a good offer for the Championship clubs, less so for Leagues One and Two, and the deal was for another three seasons. The television money received this season totalled £1.05m and he intimated that the new deal was an improvement on this.

With questions drying up Paladini then announced he'd signed a new right back without Gregory knowing, a stunned silence broken when he said that it was actually former R Paul Parker who has come back to work for the club as a communications and public relations man. This has long been called for by supporters tired of the negative coverage the club brings upon itself and Parker of course has a substantial CV of television, radio and PR work with Manchester United and the BBC. However one gentleman at the back of the room decided, of everything that had been discussed to this point, that this was the issue he wanted to take the board to task on - asking three or four times what experience Parker has and why he should get this job. Between them Paladini and Steele pointed out that Parker has been doing similar work for Man Utd, appeared on the club's television channel and continues to do regular radio work.

At this point John Gregory, who at times during the meeting had seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, took over the meeting to field questions about the playing side of things. He started by saying he wished he could say it was a pleasure for him to be here this afternoon, but quite clearly it wasn't. He said he wouldn't be addressing off the field questions because it wasn't his thing and then he invited people to speak up. Suddenly the meeting was being professionally marshalled Gregory had the microphone working better than it had done all day, he repeated the questions back once they'd been asked so the people at the back could hear and came over as a bit of a class act. It was a shame therefore that some people chose to leave as soon as on the field matters started to be discussed.

He did however state that he hoped what he said would stay in the room and not appear in the following day's papers and asked all journalists to put down their pens at this point - I did continue to take notes but will provide only a very brief summary as he asked so nicely. Mostly it was a repeat of what was said at the recent fans' forum. There was high praise for Dexter Blackstock, and a reiteration of his position on Ray Jones. He said the club remained hopeful of signing Lee Camp and they may be looking to loan some of the younger squad members out for experience next season. Bringing Smith and Mancienne back for next season was being complicated by Chelsea losing five or more players to the African nations Cup in January. The pre-season line up would probably be completed by a couple of behind closed doors friendly matches with local sides and interviews had taken place this week for a new physio. He spoke about Marc Nygaard struggling for confidence in home games when the crowd get on his back, the usual stuff about getting a good fee for Lee Cook if he does leave, and it being as big year for Dom Shimmin who has "just 12 pay days left."

The final question of the afternoon returned to off the pitch matters with Tracy Stent of Loft for Words match preview writing fame pressing Paladini on why, with the desperate search for a rich saviour continuing, Franco Zanotti didn't use some of his ample wealth to bail the club out. Paladini said that with due respect she was wasting her time because he'd asked Zanotti 250,000 times and he's just not interested. Zanotti is apparently interested in other things. He said the club had been speaking with a consortium including former Liverpool miss-of-the-season striker Ronnie Rosenthal for a couple of months and were waiting to see if anything came of it. Paladini also said he'd been out for lunch with Bill Power the day before and Bill was interested in buying back into QPR now.

Finally the meeting came to a close at this point - no massive bust ups, no apocalyptic the end of the club is nigh stuff, not even a question about Simon Blitz. It was all a bit of a damp squib really and by the end had turned into more of a fans' forum type affair with the ever impressive John Gregory in charge.

I fear we are still no closer to answers to many key questions. With so many people so keen to raise questions of the club on message boards and websites where they cannot answer, it was disappointing not to hear some of these raised in person at the AGM. Until next year…

Photo: Action Images

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