The sky's the limit for Queens Park Rangers after the Coca-Cola Championship club yesterday signed a record £7 million, three-year sponsorship deal with Gulf Air.

QPR will be paid £1 million next season by the Bahrain national carrier in return for displaying the Gulf Air logo on their shirts, and if they are promoted to the Barclays Premier League, they will bank about £6 million over the next two seasons. Five years ago, JD Sports paid £37,000 a year to sponsor QPR and before yesterday, Birmingham City's £500,000 deal with F&C Investments was the most lucrative in the second tier of English football.

“It is great for QPR to have a strong partnership with a strong brand,” Flavio Briatore, the QPR co-owner, who is also the managing director of the Renault Formula One team, said. “We want to consolidate the club and when we are promoted, we want to stay up.”

QPR were in the relegation zone when Briatore bought the club last November with Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, two of the richest men in the UK. Briatore has changed the club's crest, appointed Iain Dowie as the first-team coach and promised supporters that they will be in the Premier League by 2010. Off the pitch, improvements are being made to Loftus Road, their home since 1917, and four months ago the club signed a £20 million, five-year kit deal with Lotto, the Italian manufacturer.

Last month, Abbey, the high street bank, signed a deal to become the club's official financial partner. “Money does not buy success,” Briatore said. “We have to remember where we came from. Before we arrived the club was in a lot of trouble.”

Briatore dismissed reports that Dowie was under pressure and would be dismissed if the club were not promoted this season. Dowie replaced Luigi De Canio four months ago. “I have never said to the manager that you have to deliver or you are out,” Briatore said. “That is not the way I do business.”