Football's boardroom rogues gallery

The speculation regarding Flavio Briatore's position at QPR has brought the Football League's fit and proper persons test and the issue of club ownership into sharp relief after the Italian was handed a lifetime ban in Formula One as a result of the cheating scandal involving Renault.

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Flavio Briatore: Future under scrutiny.

Another famous case study for a test that has been widely debated was Thaksin Shinawatra's takeover of Manchester City, which went unopposed despite some very public concerns being raised by Amnesty International regarding his human rights record as leader of Thailand.

As City's executive chairman, Garry Cook, famously put it: "Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Does he have plenty of money to run a football club? Yes. I really care only about those three things. Whether he is guilty of something over in Thailand, I can't worry."

As Cook subsequently pointed out though, football has had its far share of colourful and slightly dubious boardroom characters and we have selected our own rogues' gallery from recent years. The reasons for inclusion range from complete incompetence to incredible naivety, via bizarre backgrounds, but all have one thing in common - they left an indelible mark on the history of the club involved.

Mark Goldberg - Crystal Palace
His reign at Selhurst Park cost Goldberg his reputation, a fortune of £40 million and his marriage. Purchasing the club from Ron Noades in 1998 to achieve the dream of owning his boyhood side, things rapidly went sour for Goldberg as his mystifying managerial duo of Attilio Lombardo and Tomas Brolin lasted only seven games as the club were relegated. Replacement Terry Venables, who reportedly enjoying a huge contract, lasted only six months in the job as Goldberg's wealth drained away. By the end of 1999 the club was in administration and he was bankrupt, but Goldberg reinvented himself as a manager at Bromley and remains in control of the Blue Square South side.

Michael Knighton - Carlisle United
Knighton first tried to purchase Manchester United, famously juggling a ball on the Old Trafford pitch in 1989, but settled for Carlisle three years later, promising they would reach the Premier League within a decade. Despite an encouraging start to his reign, the promised land never materialised and after selling a number of star players, claiming to have seen a UFO near the M62, constructing a stand that did not fit the dimensions of the pitch and installing himself as manager, Knighton finally left Brunton Park in 2003. His most infamous moment was perhaps an embarrassing episode in which he was almost duped into selling the club to a former curry house barman who lived in sheltered accommodation.

John Gurney - Luton Town
Gurney's reign at Kenilworth lasted just two months but it proved to be one of the darkest episodes at a club that has known its fair share of controversy and heartbreak in recent years. Starting as he meant to go on after buying the club for just £4, one of Gurney's first acts as chairman was to axe the popular management duo of Joe Kinnear and Mick Harford, incurring the wrath of angry fans. He further detailed plans to rename the club 'London Luton' in honour of the local airport and build a Formula One track around a new stadium. Mike Newell was appointed as the new manager via what was described as a Pop Idol-style phone vote, despite most supporters believing their overwhelming choice was to reinstate Kinnear. He left Kenilworth Road in July 2003 as one of the most vilified figures in the history of the club as Luton were placed into administrative receivership, but the appointment of Newell did at least prove a good decision. Declared bankrupt in April 2008, Gurney is now banned from holding a directorship at a Football League club under the fit and proper persons test.

George Reynolds - Darlington
A former safe cracker, Reynolds purchased Darlington for £800,000 in 1999 and sold the club a dream of reaching the Premier League. He funded the development of a 27,500-seater stadium (named after himself and complete with marble floors and escalators) despite the club's much more modest attendance figures and the club were placed into administration in 2003, owing more than £400,000 to the Inland Revenue. After subsequently starting a business selling S&M equipment, Reynolds was then jailed for tax evasion in 2005. The stadium still stands though, a white elephant demonstrating grandiose and fantastical plans that never came to fruition.

Terry Smith - Chester City
It was hoped that the American businessman would prove a saviour when purchasing the financially-stricken club in 1999 but concerns were quickly raised when manager Kevin Ratcliffe quit after just three games, citing interference from above. Chester then pioneered the use of three captains on the pitch - an experiment not to be repeated - and Smith even took on managerial responsibilities. Unsurprisingly, the former wide receiver in American Football was a disappointment in the dugout. Fans arranged a picket line outside the stadium in protest and even matchday stewards signalled their opposition to Smith's reign, which, with the club relegated from the Football League for the first time in 69 years, ended in 2001 when he finally sold to Stephen Vaughan.

Giovanni di Stefano - Dundee
Appropriately nicknamed 'The Devil's Advocate', Di Stefano is a lawyer who counts Slobodan Milosevic, Harold Shipman, Saddam Hussein and Moors murder Ian Brady amongst his clients past and present, and has admitted to meeting Osama Bin Laden - "His intimate knowledge of the fine arts. You felt at ease. And he had a wonderful smile." Di Stefano had a long-standing interest in Dundee and helped bring Craig Burley and Fabrizio Ravanelli to the club after being appointed as a director in August 2003. However, Dundee were placed into administration in November of that year and Di Stefano resigned from the board in January 2004. An earlier interest in Norwich City was not greeted warmly, leading the Guardian to comment that Di Stefano was "surely the only man in the world to claim the personal friendship of Saddam Hussein and the personal enmity of Delia Smith."