Reading fans to ‘put pressure’ on EFL amid fears for club’s future
Concerned Reading fans plan to focus future protests towards the English Football League amid genuine fears the club could go out of business under owner Dai Yongge.
Sundays (AEDT) EFL League One match between the Royals and Port Vale was abandoned after approximately 1,000 home supporters invaded the pitch at Select Car Leasing Stadium.
Sell Before We Dai, a fan-led group urging Chinese businessman Yongge – Reading’s majority shareholder since May 2017 – to sell up, said the incident was “just the start”.
Group member Eleanor Flood, a season-ticket holder who has been watching Reading since 1994, called for support from the EFL to help stave off the possibility of liquidation.
“I think the people who can put the pressure on is the EFL, so I think we will turn our attentions to something there,” she said.
“They’ve got their head office in Preston and the London office, so I think we’ll look to do something that focuses more on them and their ability to really intervene in this.
“We don’t want them to let us go under when they could actually step up and help.
“I think that’s where the focus will be – PR stunts to keep it in everybody’s mind, but ultimately the next stage will be to put pressure on people who can actually help us.
“We were in the Premier League [most recently in the 2012-2013 season] and now there’s a real possibility that we might not exist.
“For one of the oldest clubs in the football league, that’s just unimaginable, that we might go into liquidation.”
As a membership organisation and competition organiser, the EFL’s role is to ensure compliance and work within the bounds of regulations set by member clubs.
The League, which supports the new independent regulator, was recently unsuccessful in a proposal to have Yongge disqualified from all football activity for 12 months in relation to a financial misconduct charge.
Reading, formed in 1871, has been hit with a series of points deductions and financial penalties under his stewardship.
The Berkshire club was relegated from the Championship last term because of a six-point penalty and sits in the League One relegation zone after being stripped of four points this campaign.
Sunday's (AEDT)pitch invasion occurred in the 16th minute, representing the total number of points deducted during Yongge’s reign.
Fans chanted anti-Yongge slogans and unveiled a banner in the centre circle which read "Football has an ownership problem".
The 55-year-old Yongge, whose takeover came just before the Royals’ penalty shootout defeat to Huddersfield Town in the 2017 EFL Championship play-off final, was previously involved with Chinese club Beijing Renhe and Belgian side KSV Roeselare, both of which were dissolved.
Flood said efforts to target the EFL could be done in collaboration with fans of other clubs troubled by recent ownership issues, such as next weekend’s opponent Wigan Athletic.
“It’s important to reference that he’s liquidated two other clubs as well, one in China and one in Belgium,” Flood said of Yongge.
“They don’t exist anymore, and we don’t want to be the third.
“You want there to be that club that’s passed from generation to generation and at this point we’re really scared that next season it might not exist.”
The EFL is set to discuss the implications of the abandoned match with Reading and Port Vale.
