The news that QPR have been forced to take out a £1.3m "bridging" loan from the ABC Corporation has been met with dismay by supporters.

On Easter Monday Paul Furlong stooped low and headed a glorious final goal of his time with QPR to secure a last minute 3-2 win against Luton and all but confirm the Hatters' relegation. At the start of the season Luton had looked a formidable outfit and good play off bet, but after what can only be described as a January fire sale they quickly dropped into trouble and eventually to the bottom.

As things stand QPR surely do not have enough money to make it through the coming season and without significant investment a Luton style fire sale beckons for us this winter. Even those that have buried their heads in the sand and just focussed on the team on the pitch while the financial situation has worsened are going to have to sit up and take note of this, because without investment the team is under threat.

Logically this was always going to happen once it had been announced that the Monaco group would not be putting any more money into the club. Interest payments to make, wages to pay, bills stacking up - the money has to come from somewhere.

The club has had to change the credit card payment facilities at Loftus Road this summer.While the box office and club shop have been running without credit card machines, season ticket applications have been stacking up. The warning on the renewal form that all payments should be made by cheque or cash not headed by many, and frankly why should it have been!? Denied season ticket money the club has been forced to look elsewhere for money.

One month ago we published an article on this site entitled Is this a(nother) wind up asking why the club had wanted to borrow £13m from Oldham Chairman Simon Blitz when he offered to refinance the £10m ABC loan. It was clear the club was desperate for an extra £3m from somewhere and when the league threw a large spanner in the works of the Blitz deal the situation grew more desperate. Not only could they not borrow money from the chairman of another club, but they'd have to pay back the money they'd already received from him pretty sharpish.

In the past 12 months QPR have sold over £5m worth of talent from the first team and youth squad but with tax bills and winding up orders starting to surface again, the league watching on to make sure a bridging loan from Blitz was paid back this summer so as not to violate the dual interest rules and time running out they've turned once more to the dreaded ABC Corporation - the reason we're in this dire situation in the first place.

Director Nick De Marco told supporters trust QPR 1st: "Fans will be aware that QPR was faced with a winding up order from both the IR and VAT in July. If the club had not found a substantial sum of money to pay off before 4 July, the club would have been put in administration.

"At that point administrators would have been appointed and the players would have been sold off for way below their market price. ABC would have reclaimed their loan and could have enforced the term of the agreement allowing them to sell the ground. The club would have been left with no ground or players. This is something the board was determined to avoid at any cost.

"Faced with the risk of administration if a substantial sum was not paid to the taxman, the need to pay various other debts and of course on-going costs, the club had no alternative than to seek a short term bridging loan. Nobody was prepared to lend the club the sums required in time, apart from ABC who were themselves concerned that they might not be able to recover the debt owed to them by the club if it went into administration."

The result - a loan of £1.3m from the mysterious Panama based corporation, which has to be repaid by August 15 this year. With season tickets finally being processed and Lee Cook already posing for photos in his new Fulham shirt that shouldn't be too much of a problem now. Blitz paid, the tax paid, the bridging loan paid back - by August 15 this drama should be over.

That cannot be the end of it though. Firstly because the documents filed over the new loan state: "payment in full on or before the repayment date set out in clause 6 1 2 of the new loan agreement (ie 31 July 2008) of the loan of £10,000,000 (ten million pounds sterling) advanced by ABC to the Company pursuant to the terms of the original loan agreement".

De Marco said: "It is true that the club must find a replacement for the ABC loan in the next year. We are confident that we will do that, and financially it is necessary to do anyway. The advantage is that QPR will now be able to get out of the ABC loan earlier than the full 10 years once an alternative lender has been put in place. The on-going discussions with new investors obviously take this into account.

"It is hoped that some new investment deal will be agreed in the next few weeks, otherwise an alternative loan provider from ABC will be agreed. It is not possible to go into detail about this at this stage because to do so may jeopardise those discussions."

The original ABC loan must now be paid off or refinanced by this time next year. There is also a new option for ABC to purchase the ground, currently valued at £24m, within a 16 month 'option period' for £10m.

De Marco said: "I can categorically confirm that the "option" only arises after the repayment date of the original loan (of £10m) has past, and only if the debt has not been repaid as of that date. The "option period" only arises after that date. This is very clear in the express terms of all the signed documentation. ABC have no option at present. QPR still has to find an alternative lender to replace the ABC loan, but so long as it does that before the expiry of the loan then the option does not arise."

All in all, ever so slightly terrifying.

The club's representatives seem to remain optimistic of new investment and say the club continues to speak to interested parties despite the lack of serious interest since Chris Wright departed leaving us in this sorry mess. Demand is growing for Gianni Paladini and his colleagues to sell their share for a nominal amount - Wolves recently went for a tenner - if somebody that can take the club forward presents themself. Somebody that could get the club to stand still would be better than nothing because at the moment it's hard to argue we're not racing towards a financial disaster.

We never hear from any potential new investors of course, we don't know if they exist and perhaps more importantly we never find out why they don't invest. What is it that's putting them all off? There must be a problem other than we're in a lot of debt, because these people know that already when they enter into discussions.

With seriously sellable assets now numbering one, Dexter Blackstock, new investment is crucial because the wage bill and tax commitments aren't suddenly going to stop.

If we have made it through this little drama it can only be a matter of months or weeks before the money runs out again. The clock is ticking.

Ben Kosky reflects on the new loan in this week's Kilburn Times

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls