Reading (A) - Saturday 5th April (KO 12.30pm)
Kick-off time moved to 12.30pm
https://www.wwfc.com/news/2025/march/06/tickets-reading-a-05-04/
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Kick-off time moved to 12.30pm
https://www.wwfc.com/news/2025/march/06/tickets-reading-a-05-04/
Comments
BOOOOOO!
Thats 2 fingers to those of us who work Saturday mornings.
This Sky deal sucks.
I keep forgetting they can just dick about endlessly. Must stop arranging other things based on advertised KO times.
Vipienne is pretty much becoming my default option.
That's ruined a nice civilised pre-match lunchtime trip to the pub. A couple of tins walking up the A33 it is then...
After today's news (see Bearwood thread) you may be walking walking down the A33 without seeing a match, But, of course, I hope you do see a match.
If Dai Y does nothing and is disqualified from 4th April, would all Readings results from this season simply be removed from all teams, or would they have a default loss 3-0 for their remaining games?
I would have thought setting a disqualification date of after season end would make more sense, giving time for a sale and also avoiding the chaos of throwing out a team so. Lose to the end of a season
Yongee's company has three Directors including himself. Surely, when he gets disqualified one of the other two directors takes over responsibility for running the club?
Likely, If the EFL actually had real power to remove owners from ownership that would be very interesting but I don't think they have.
Things seem to be becoming a little bit clearer now.
The EFL has said Dai's debts in China has now made him a unfit person to own a an EFL club. From the 4th April he has 30 days in which to dispose of the club, which takes it to the day after the end of the season. So, if the club is not sold by that date, Reading FC will not play in the playoffs, even if they qualify., giving someone a free pass to the final, unless, of course the EFL says the seventh place club takes our place.
Could Dai transfer his shares to his sister or the Thai gentleman, who I believe are both still directors? They have both passed the fit and proper tests, so I imagine that would open another can of worms for the EFL to sort out.
As I understand it that period has already started and the end date is April 4th, not the start date.
It is my understanding that the 4th. April is the end date of the disqualification process, but he then has 30 days in which to sell the club.
As I am not a legal expert so I may be well be wrong. i know you have one or two legal experts on here so could they shed some light on the subject? (I have donned my tin hat and ducked!).
Hopefully some clarification will come from the FL about what the actual timelines are, my understanding is day 30 after the disqualification is the hard limit, which conveniently will be after the last day of the regular season.
I see no reason why our game won't go ahead, hopefully you will also have Football League fixtures to look forward to in August.
The key thing is when did the EFL inform Yongge that he was disqualified as this date is when the clock for the sale began.
It clearly wasn't March 21st as the 4th April then makes no sense.
April 4th only makes sense as the end date rather than the commencement date as not event the EFL would tell someone that they cant be trusted as the owner of a club but they will leave him in situ as a director for another fortnight.
So one must assume that the clock was already ticking at that point, in order for the 4th April ot make sense he must have been advised on or around 5th March that he had been disqualified for failing the "fit & proper" person test. (no mean feat in itself to fail that)
Therefore I think we all have to be prepared ot accept the worst on 4th April; but hope that RFC are able to show the EFL that the sale negotiations are sufficiently advanced to grant an extension of the sale date to allow for completion.
I honestly hope that this all works out ok for the Reading fans.
I did mange to track this down on the EFL site dated 21 March - sadly it adds nothing to the understanding of the timeframes, though it does indicate he is already disqualified so...
EFL Statement: Reading FC & Mr Dai Yongge
Following its disclosure in open court earlier today, the League can confirm that Mr Yongge has been recently disqualified under the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test.
The disqualification requires Mr Yongge to divest his interests in the Club, and in the event that he fails to do so within the agreed timeframe, the League will consider all options available within its regulations to bring the matter to a conclusion.
The League continues to work closely with Reading FC to progress a sale of the Club at the earliest opportunity, in order to end the current uncertainty surrounding its future for its staff, supporters and wider community.
During the Radio Berkshire programme on this subject last night, they confirmed that the 30 days would start from 4th April and end on 4th May one day after the end of the regular fixtures.
@Vital - I am not being argumentative, but who is "they"?
The Radio Berkshire reporter who was in court and the solicitor he was interviewing on the programme.
The EFL may be pretty incompetent in many things but even they are not so stupid as to potentially create a situation where a club can't fulfill their remaining fixtures and be able to blame it on the EFL themselves.
Of course they aren't bringing this to a head until a day after the season fixtures are complete.
Maybe it would be a nice touch if we protested with the Reading fans in a show to prove that we felt uncomfortable about bidding on their training ground?
Reading could easily get in the Playoffs which don’t finish until three weeks after May 4th.
They'll probably just miss out. But at least if the worst happened it'd be easier to replace them in the playoffs then if they dropped out with a few games left. And all the carnage purging points against them.
While I agree, it would be very simple for Reading to be excluded from the play-offs. Technically the play-offs are a different competition to the league.
Much simpler than kicking them out of the league with only a couple of games to play and having to expunge their results from the record.
My point still stands - there's is a reason the deadline is a day after the season ends rather than a few weeks before the season end.
In the aftermath of the debacle, Couhig confirmed that he was planning on buying the training ground for Feliciana, not WWFC. This is an important detail that was glossed over by the press, but it was Rob Couhig and Co trying to buy it for themselves while using the name of our club as a cover for their speculative property dealings.
WWFC was purchased from the Trust by Couhig through his company Feliciana Ltd, so one would expect any purchase of Bearwood to by the same company. Not sure where the "glossing over" comes in!
Looking at Companies House, Feliciana Ltd is still active and it's two directors are Lomtadze and his son in law.
The beneficial owner of the training ground would have been Feliciana, not WWFC. Although one owns the other, they are separate entities.
It really makes no practical difference either way.
Adams Park is a separate entity to WWFC.
Your point being?
If WWFC doesn't own Adams Park, why should they own Bearwood (other than by a lease) if it was acquired. After all they don't own the Marlow Road land!
I suspect there are quite a few football clubs where the ground is owned by a different legal entity to the one that owns the football club.
Take PNL for example ...
Chelsea is a great example - the fan group own the pitch but nothing else!
It would have made no practical difference as to how WWFC would have used it for as long as Feliciana determined theirs and WWFC's interests coincided.
The point is WWFC wouldn't have owned it, and thus wouldn't have benefited from any proceeds from its sale - thus the reporting that WWFC was trying to buy Reading's training ground was inaccurate. It was opportunism from Couhig to try and make purchasing Feliciana a more appealing proposition for Lomtadze, whose primary motivation is to set up a success academy.