Fernandes to use Air Asia as fallback shirt sponsor

QPR failed to land a sponsor for the start of the football season, despite being promoted to the Premier League this year.

Fernandes, owner of the Team Lotus Formula 1 team and airline company Air Asia, took over QPR after he bought out major shareholder Bernie Ecclestone and former Formula 1 boss Flavio Briatore.

In an interview on the QPR website,  Fernandes said: "Sponsorship isn't a top priority to be honest. Obviously there's maybe a little bit of pride involved that we're the only club without a sponsor, but we could get a sponsor tomorrow, but at what price?

"If worse comes to worse, I'm sure I can persuade Air Asia or Malaysian Airlines to come on board and sponsor us."

Air Asia is owned by the Malaysian businessman. Malaysian Airlines is government-owned.

There are no rules preventing club owners providing shirt sponsorship to their football teams.

Manchester City – owned by an Abu Dhabi-based consortium led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan – has Ethiad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based national airline of the United Arab Emirates, as its main shirt sponsor.

Etihad Airways is owned by the Abu Dhabi government. The oil-rich state's ruler, Shekh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayhan, is Sheikh Mansour's half-brother.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk