Soccer-Fernandes attends QPR game to fuel takeover talk

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes added fuel to speculation he wants to buy into Premier League club Queens Park Rangers by attending their opening match of the season at the weekend.

Fernandes, who owns the Team Lotus Formula One outfit, has been strongly linked by British media with a move to take control of the London-based soccer club by buying out majority shareholder Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 supremo.
QPR got off to a terrible start in their first match in the top flight since 1996 on Saturday, losing 4-0 at home to Bolton Wanderers in a match featuring an own goal, an injury to one of their new signings and a red card.
"I think we'll have to wait and see," the club's manager Neil Warnock told Sky television when asked about Fernandes.
"I know he is very interested. Stability is what we need really."
Ecclestone and former Renault Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore own around 70 percent of the club with Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal the other major shareholder.
Television pictures showed Fernandes sitting in the directors' box with Briatore at Saturday's game.
QPR are not the first London soccer club to be associated with Fernandes with the owner of Malaysia-based budget airline AirAsia saying in the past he had wanted to buy into West Ham United, who were relegated from the top flight last season.
He classes himself as a West Ham supporter.