Ecclestone's plot to buy Roma
Flavio Briatore's reign as Queens Park Rangers chairman has been about as chaotic as Formula One since the Renault boss took over two years ago.
But it could have been so very different if the colourful Italian had followed through on an original plan to buy Roma.
Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone
There was always a surreal quality to Briatore turning up at Loftus Road with billionaire F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone and Indian industrial tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, the world's eighth richest man.
And it seems the middling Championship club were in fact their second choice.
Argentine FIFA agent Luis Ruzzi has revealed he was brokering a deal for Briatore and Ecclestone to buy cash-strapped Serie A giants Roma until negotiations became complicated and they took their billions off to west London.
'I am very close to Bernie Ecclestone,' said Ruzzi.
'We have been friends since I used to organise the Argentine Grand Prix.'
Ruzzi explained how 78-year-old Ecclestone had wanted to buy Roma from the Sensi family.
'He was concerned,' said Ruzzi. 'So me and the representative of the Sensi familiy, Gianroberto De Giovanni, went to lunch in London with Ecclestone and Briatore, who was to be the chairman.
'Ecclestone wanted to buy the club, but Briatore wanted to think it over. The operation was too complicated. A few weeks later the two men bought QPR.'
