Reading face unfunded £1m shortfall for March
As a postscript to the jubilant scenes amongst us in the away end on Saturday, the situation at Reading becomes more dire by the day. Dai Yongge's rubbing supporters' faces in his brazen asset stripping of the club by announcing he's looking to flog Reading's training facilities (opened only 5 years ago) to funnel funds back to himself, meanwhile the "Sell before we Dai" campaign revealed that the club faced a £1m shortfall for March alone. With Yongge seemingly too obscenely wealthy to care if he loses a few million on this venture, and too indifferent to care about his broken plaything's long-term future, I really struggle to see a way out for Reading save for another obscenely wealthy individual paying well over the odds to buy Yongge out.
There is talk on Twitter of Reading fans crowdfunding the loss for March, which (aside from being utterly bonkers) only kicks the can down the A33 for another month. Anyone following my posts on here will know my time living in Biscuitville hasn't made many any fonder of the club, but any club (except Franchise) being asset stripped and torn limb from limb by a capricious sociopathic owner who is far too wealthy to barely notice the hit on their net worth makes it more likely that owners of other clubs resenting covering ever greater losses will think that's a viable way for them to behave. It made me pretty angry hearing the shandy lads on Saturday "You're going bust in the morning" as if it's the height of hilarious bantz - if only they knew how perilously close we've come to the abyss ourselves in the not-too distant past.
I really hope Reading find a way out of their current predicament. There I said it...
Comments
Out of interest, do you know if it was Yongge's money that helped build the training facility?
I am probably being extremely simplistic, but why can't prospective owners have to put a certain amount of funds on deposit with the EFL, and if they fail on basic stewardship, the EFL have the right to remove the club from them contractually, and use the funds to run the club while a buyer is found?
That's a good question. The nearest I could get to that was this article - https://wokingham.today/royals-new-bearwood-training-ground-taking-shape/. All it mentions is 'investment from the owners', but no mention of any grants which usually accompany developments such as this. I'm sure that Yongge's investment was not inconsiderable (though probably fairly small change for someone whose net worth is in the billions), though also a way below the total cost of the development. Also, the costs were offset by selling their previous training ground at Hogswood for a profit of up to £8m (https://star-reading.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Reading-FC-Notes-from-the-accounts-FINAL.pdf - page 2).
Considering how property prices in the Reading/Wokingham/Bracknell area have gone up since 2018, and developments appearing that enlarge the sprawl of the conurbation demonstrating the value of land in that area, a mortgage against the current land value of the training ground would have made a lot more sense if the aim was to ensure cashflow to the club. Though I fear that the end game for Mr. Yongge is something that doesn't particularly pay much attention to even the medium-term future of the club...
It's not too dissimilar to the system used by the German football league - clubs must present accounts, players' contracts and projected outgoings to the league and demonstrate how they will fund the outgoings. Clubs that fail to meet the requirements are subject to relegation down to a level where their income can pay for outgoings associated with that level.
Celebrity Wycombe fan Henning Wehn's (now second) team Schalke 04 are in danger of not having a league to play in that can meet their exorbitant outgoings should they get relegated from Bundesliga 2, which is not beyond the realms of possibility right now.
Bloody hell, I hadn't realised what a mess Schalke were in. Champions League semi-finalists only 13 years ago. Like Leeds but a slower decline.
I had the misfortune of living in Reading during the most successful period in their history, so like @ReadingMarginalista i have no time for them or their weird supporters.
But this is awful.
I quite enjoy living in Reading, for a large town there is a lot of green space and the amateur music scene is great. There's a beer festival and there used to be a decent music festival before all the yoofs went and ruined music just to spite me. High on the list for any town in my book - it's relatively easy to get out of Reading and be somewhere else instead.
Dai Yongge’s previous club went bankrupt in 2021…
Given the timeframes, I’m not blaming the EFL for him passing the fit and proper test, but surely they should have started working with the supporters trust to force through the sale of Reading when his previous venture succumbed.
I live about five miles out of town and have lived on the edge of Reading for 20 years.
Readings pluses far outweigh the minuses and it has a lot of opportunities for job seekers, mix that in with great travel options and being within an hour’ish of the three main London airports.
Fast 20 minute trains to Paddington and now through to East London on the Elizabeth line.
The town centre is in rapid retail decline though with large swathes of the Oracle due to be replaced with flats. Planning put in at The Broad Street Mall for flats too and Forbury Retail Park to be demolished and replaced by flats. All possible because of the travel connections.
They had lost London Irish in 2021 to Brentford’s new stadium and the decline in Reading FC’s is well documented.
I’ve never lived in a in a big town but if I had too I can think of much worse places in Berks & Bucks.
And there are surrounding areas like Wokingham, which is a lovely town to live in.
Not sure of Readings debt profile, or how much the current owner would want for them but they could be a pretty cheap option for a prospective buyer. Cheap in terms of billionaires that is.
When you look at people paying billions for premier league clubs, then buying a team like Reading must be a good option.
They have a real good stadium, excellent road and rail connections, a good training ground and an excellent catchment area.
If you were someone who wanted a rich man’s project then buying Reading with the aim of taking them up to the Premier League seems very possible to me.
Apart from MK Dons, I wouldn't wish this on any club in the football league (even Derby to a certain extent). The FA & EFL really need to have this outside organisation to oversee and manage these clubs and their owners as it's clear the FA & League are too weak to do so
Reading itself is a great place to live, and I was very happy living there. Just a shame that , for example, when they had their promotion to the premier league parade I was driving to a B and B cup final game. Which we lost.
I went to uni in Reading. It’s a great campus and I had a brilliant time there. Used to be some great pubs The Butler being a favourite.
Have you seen The Pink Diamond Revue @Ed_ ? My favourite Reading band (apart from the wonderful Slowdive of course).
Having now listened to this weeks opposition view, I think Reading for should forced to play their home games in Singapore.
Nothing will ever top Bennet and their single Mum's Gone to Iceland.
Although I know very little about him) not even sure if he is alive, sorry that sounds awful), it must be a very sad and tough watch for John Madjeski himself who transformed the club in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
Although possibly no longer buying green bananas, Madejski is still around. He came in for a lot of criticism for coming out to bat for Yongge previously when it was clear he was hanging the club out to dry. AFAIK he's not made any comment recently.
I worked at Reading Uni for a decade - always amazed me that the club did so little to attract students and only really got involved with the university (at the uni's behest) the year before last around the climate stripes campaign.
Reading's a town of 240,000 (largest town in England that's not a city) and should easily sustain a championship-level football club, yet they relied on Madejski's millions for too long before a run of dodgy Russian, Thai and latterly Chinese ownership stripped away the solid foundations from beneath the club - the EFL has a lot to answer for.
Post-Madejski, the main desire of the owners has been to exploit the property values of the land around the stadium. They have all also been very rich on paper, but without much liquidity in their assets. The current owner looks to have been hit very hard by the collapse of the property sector in China and may well be nothing like as rich as has been stated - the sooner he's out the better - though there seem to be very few honest, football-focused club saviours around these days.
though there seem to be very few honest, football-focused club saviours around these days.
Hello.
While Mike Ashley has a bad name, I believe that he's prob the perfect person to takeover Reading. While he does make some unpopular decisions while at Newcastle and his ownership of the stadium in Coventry, he does try and run the club properly, ensuring that they are not running up massive debts and splashing out massive sums of money on players.
However, while he could be the right person, I think he'll wait for as long as he can before trying to get the club for a reduced rate and the best deal for him rather than the current owner.
I really fail to understand why this is the fault of the EFL. This is the fault of the Chairman, fans and players in the football league and beyond. Everyone knows it is not sustainable as it currently works.
If the EFL do not approve owners that look good on paper and have lots of money they get lambasted. If said "good owner" then decides to pull the plug. EFL get lambasted. Lots of people love what's going on at Wrexham but what if they get bored and stop funding, they are screwed. Same as Andy Holt at Accrington, us with the Couhigs. Watford will be next, I think the Pozzo's have had enough.
This is far wider reaching than the EFL. Damned if they do and damned if they don't. EFL have tried to bring in stricter rules but the Chairman just vote against it.
The real issue is allowing clubs in the Premier League to "lose" £105M over a three year period and treat that as "normal". The same for the Championship - it's £39M over three seasons. It's absolutely ridiculous but who voted it in - the Chairman of the Premier League and EFL.
Football is broken, and until clubs stop chasing the alledged "dream" then everyone if FCUKED.
I'm sure WWFC will soon be back on the administration trail once our new Georgian guy gets bored...
Apologies @MJS my rant was at football in general and not at you 😀
Didn’t realise the Premier League had a Chairman.
I recall the same feelings when the hoo hah around Derby was going on. As fans we have a responsibility. Fans demand success, it is what we go to games for, so having for example Andy Carroll on your books for several seasons in the hope that he will propel you to the promised land will come at a cost. So whilst I have a lot of sympathy for the Reading fans there is an element of buyers regret. And being honest we are existing in blind faith alone so don't be surprised if we have the same shock some time down the line.
It's weirder to me that the Chairboys have a Chairman. It makes the rest of us feel young!
Very good 👍
If it all goes tits up with Lomtadze I hope we don't go down the same path as the Derby fans (and some Reading fans are starting to do) by deciding that having a shit owner wasn't the problem, it was that secret meeting where all the other clubs (and everybody else involved in football) decided we shouldn't exist.
Its actually a Chair (not the QPR one either)!
I've read through the article article and there is reference to our academy that doesn't exist so I'm not sure if I believe it or not.
IF it's true, I don't know if I should be pleased & excited or worried......