Queens Park Rangers' wage bill is more then Champions League finalists Atlectico Madrid

The London club spent more than £20million on salaries then the current La Liga champions last year

Queens Park Rangers bowed out of the Premier League last season with a whimper but their wage bill suggests they should be challenging Europe’s elite.

The London side face the lottery of the play-offs this season to get back to the top league of English football and the salaries they pay their players would have fans wanting so much better, the club even pay out more than La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.

The Spanish side could well make this an unforgettable season with league and Champions League trophies well within their grasps and Diego Simeone’s side do it all for over £20million less than QPR.

Harry Redknapp’s side earned in excess of £78m in salaries during last season which resulted in finishing bottom of the league whereas Atletico came third in La Liga, securing football in Europe’s best competition and have since gone from strength to strength, suggesting the wage bills should be the other way round.

QPR revealed the extent of their overspend in their 2012/13 accounts with The Guardian reporting how the club’s wages equalled up to 128 per cent of overall turnover.

The clubs’ owners allowed Mark Hughes, and later Redknapp, free reign with the funds to bring in players such as Esteban Granero, Stephane Mbia, Jose Bosingwa, Julio Cesar, Samba Diakite, Junior Hoilett and Ji-Sung Park, all on tremendous wage packages.

Redknapp’s signings of Loic Remy and Chris Samba only added to the problems.

Owner Tony Fernandes will be praying that his side can negotiate the perils of the play-offs and gain promotion back to the Premier League later this month to ease some of the strain on his accounts.