London: Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is now considering buying out Falvio Briatore stake at Queens Park Rangers after he was engulfed in controversy as manager of Renault’s Formula One team.
Briatore, the Italian playboy, ordered a racing driver to crash his car deliberately last year, costing him his job.
The Indian billionaire was persuaded by Briatore to become an investor in Queens Park Rangers football club in 2007, but is now reportedly reconsidering his ties with the flamboyant tycoon, a British newspaper reported.
Mittal, who remains one of the wealthiest men in the world, is represented at the club by the popular board member and his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia.
“Lakshmi is extremely concerned about what has happened,” said one of his associates.
“He is keen to improve his image in this country and takes this matter very seriously. He is now considering whether the best way forward would be for him to buy Flavio out of QPR,” the source added.
Briatore could potentially be extradited to Singapore to face criminal charges in the wake of his departure from Renault in connection with the race-fixing claims.
There are also legal challenges open to Ferrari and their driver Felipe Massa, who missed out on last year’s world drivers’ crown by a single point; and to Renault itself, which may want to sue its former employees for allegedly bringing the company’s name into disrepute.
ANI
First Published: Sunday, September 20, 2009, 16:40