The Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, a Chelsea fan at heart, has become the majority shareholder in Championship football side Queens Park Rangers after buying out his friend Flavio Briatore.
West London-based QPR, whose other major shareholder is Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, are currently top of the division under manager Neil Warnock and on course for a return to the Premier League for the first time since 1996.
Briatore, the former Renault F1 team boss who is currently barred from Formula One activities after a race-fixing scandal, stepped down as QPR chairman in February.
He had joined forces with Ecclestone and Mittal in buying the club in 2007.
