Force India team boss Vijay Mallya could become the latest motorsport figure to take an involvement in London football club Queens Park Rangers.
According to Britain's
Daily Mail, the Indian billionaire is looking to put together a sponsorship deal which would see him pump £20 million into the Championship side.
That deal would see his Kingfisher beer advertised on the team shirts, and could also see the club's Loftus Road ground renamed as the Kingfisher Stadium.
If a deal, which is rumoured to be close to completion, does go through, then it would make Mallya the third key figure from
Formula One involved with the club.
F1 supremo
Bernie Ecclestone and
Renault team boss Flavio Briatore took control of the club last year with a focus on returning to the top flight of English football, a position the team last held back in the mid 1990s, and were joined in December by another Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.
Alejandro Agag, who was linked to a possible buyout of
Super Aguri and is co-owner of the Campos GP2 team, and GP2 Series director Bruno Michel are also part of the Loftus Road board.
Thanks to the combined wealth of the owners, QPR was regarded as the richest club in English football, before Manchester City was purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group in September.
City also has Formula One links, with new chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak having played a key role in securing an F1 Grand Prix for Abu Dhabi through his role as chairman of the Abu Dhabi Motor Sport Management Company.
