Source: QPRColin/Flickr

Tales of football teams that have hit hard times are more and more frequent. Some crash and burn, going out of business, some get snapped up by wealthy Russian oligarchs, and some, well, some just get weirder. Case in point is West London's Queens Park Rangers, once a high-flying club along with other now struggling sides Nottingham Forest and Ipswich in England's top flight.

Rob Hughes in the International Herald Tribune tells the story of how QPR's financial difficulties have led the club down a strange path of foreign ownership, absentee directors, and reputed mafia threats. Club director Gianni Paladini's assault by gunmen back in August set the tone for the current situation, where the club has just dodged going into administration by paying the British tax authorities £500,000 of the remaining £1million+ it owes and keeper Simon Royce was recently attacked in the field by several fans despite beating Stoke 2-1 in the match and just before that in November it was fined by the FA for a fight involving all 11 players against all 11 of Leicester's players at Walker's Stadium.

The club currently sits 14th in the Championship, formerly the first division, 33 points behind leaders Reading at the moment.