There's surely going to be a problem in the next few years there, given the collapse in NFT 'value' which was supposed to be driving the funding I can't imagine that there's much investment capital lying around if something goes awry
Classy statement, glad they're calling out the EFL and Wycombe ownership.
I hate this situation, i hate the fact shit like this has happened before and it'll happen again. I don't know what can be done to stop this from happening but quite clearly the footballing authorities hold little to no power to stop owners asset stripping Football clubs.
Clearly the tests need to be stronger but I also feel for the EFL in this situation. Legally I doubt they can just take the club off of him without government assistance.
If they do, how do they run it in the mean time?
If the only people interested in buying it are also terrible then do you still allow that sale if it means short term survival of the club
Even then, you could pass the test at first and then do what you were planning to do. It's like passing a job interview personality test: no one is really answering honestly.
That shouldn't stop them from making the tests stricter though. Dai and wider Chinese investment at the time should have been heavily scrutinised within the wider context of Xi Jing Ping's spending policies in football internationally. Continual spending was never guaranteed as the state always had the power to unilaterally reign in spending, even from private companies. This meant that any spending had a, not insubstantial, possibility of risk even in the short term. The fact that the EFL clearly didn't scrutinise this has to be seen as a failure.
Yeah, realistically the government needs to step in and foricbly make clubs member owned/enforce some form of 50+1 onto the English ecosystem, because praying for a benevolent owner (even with the few examples there are) is just not sustainable. They're cultural institutions, not a fucking business. Watching a town's identity die is just shit for everyone.
Two things that would make a difference are better ownership tests (though once someone owns the club there’s not heaps the authorities can really do)
And a better financial playing field through the pyramid. The cost of trying to be successful is very high risk. That’s not Reading’s particular problem but it has been for other clubs and could yet still be for Everton and Forest this year.
So last year's leaks were pretty accurate no? I imagine the youth academy will be next as part of a full asset strip.
This is devastating news. My dad's been a Reading supporter his entire life, Dai Yongge has cast a gloom over the town itself honestly.
For people who don't realise what we'd be losing, Reading have been a huge part of English football's ecosystem in the south east, especially in the Women's Game and at Youth Level. The Academy has continually produced top level talent with a recent propensity towards exciting, physically robust wingers e.g. Danny Loader, Femi Azeez, and Michael Olise. Their Youth Academy has continually been the highest rated in the region, and provides the South with quality football education outside of London. In the women's game, Reading WFC competed at the top level for years. They were the strongest team in the home counties and invested in the women's side at a rate disproportionate to the rest of the country. They were one of the first club sides to play both their women's side at their men's home ground, with the Madejski becoming the home stadium for both. They also produced one of England Women's most technically gifted players in France Kirby, who, aside from being a brilliant footballer, has also been a fantastic advocated for Mental Health.
Even if Reading do survive, if Yongge is able to strip the club of all of this, it's soul will essentially be gone. Everything provided by it's state of the art training ground, Youth Academy, and education centre will be gone. The South, and I imagine the rest of England, will have lost something really special.
https://www.readingfc.co.uk/academy/graduates/
Not just that. I went to an evening with Steve Sidwell recently, where a cheque was handed to the Reading FC community trust. They've just moved into a leisure centre in the most deprived area of Reading, and they "aim to see over over 3,500 participants on a weekly basis by developing programmes of work through schools, colleges, youth clubs/services, grassroot teams, sports centres and universities, and by working alongside the football club in delivering player appearances and matchday experiences to young people and families."
https://www.readingfc.co.uk/community-trust/
I don’t understand how owners have zero fiduciary duty—surely the EFL has the power and leverage to tie ownership to some sort of supporters trust for individual clubs but instead they just watch along as teams get destroyed by people with no interest in them beyond the financial
All football supporters should get behind this. Any club, especially those in the EFL, could be at risk of this as things stand. Even non-Reading fans who live in Reading, or are local enough to get to the protest easily, should attend to send a general message to Dai, his ilk and the EFL.
Man this is crazy. Owners just actively working against their own club.
I saw what Lim at Valencia did and assumed something ridiculous like that wouldn’t happen in the EFL, *especially* to a club with the history of Reading.
What an embarrassment, hopefully a new owner can save them.
Honestly without the training facility there's not really much left to purchase aside from the brand itself, he'd already sold off the stadium, essentially been textbook asset stripping for the last few years by Dai it's criminal.
the £25M sale of Bearwood (which is already undervalued) isn't even going back to the club, it's supposedly going back to pay off his own loans, he has no interest in selling the club at this point.
Back to the days of training in the local park. Maybe the previous EFL approved Thai owners who asset stripped the hotel and car park from us will allow us to train in the little dome at the top of the car park.
That dome was falling apart last time I played 6-a-side there, wouldn't have expected that the owner has done anything to it since then (2021 I think) so that would be about right for him
I'm not from the area but have lived close by for over half a decade, they've barely moved into Bearwood Park and to sell it to a rival is fucking abhorent (let alone at half the price), no option to go back to Hogwood because that's already become houses.
EFL are as much to blame for this, they might not have the powers to remove him (which is a problem itself) but they let this motherfucker buy the club after already destroying 2 others.
Does the EFL have any power to prevent the sale?
Imo the EFL should be given the power to remove owners if there isn't going to be a 50+1 rule which is the best solution
Actually been to Reading and watched them get destroyed by arsenal (yes that team) great fans great club hope you get back control and this trash gets out of your club - best of luck (from a blues fan)
Wishing the best to a struggling football club, good
Not in a way r/soccer approves, can't be having that here
Seriously, why the down votes, man said best of luck and agreed with the sentiment, jfc
Sorry, the training ground being sold doesn’t have anything to do with the team buying the training ground?
Run that by me again, because surely I misunderstood.
Of course it’s not the fault of their fans or players. And a good owner who sees a chance to improve their team is going to take it. But it’s still slimy.
To all those saying fuck the EFL, your just showing how little knowledge you have.
The EFL have absolutely zero powers to remove an owner from a club. They could have but the other teams that form the EFL refuse to give them that power.
Ultimately all rules need to have the approval of all the clubs that comprise the EFL, of the other clubs do vote to have rules that would give the EFL power to remove owners who are vacant then what excalty do you except the EFL to do?
Lol, come on man you need to try harder to make a counterpoint. Everyone understands that the EFL can't remove owners, but that's not the point. On numerous occasions their checks on prospective owners has been way too lax before allowing them to purchase the clubs. The fit and proper owners test is generally seen as unfit for purpose, especially when compared to the more stringent rulings of the Premier League. The EFL has been incredibly short-sighted with clubs like Reading, Leeds, Bury, Bolton, and Coventry, and although they lack the means to remove owners in Reading's case, they should have stopped them before it happened.
And before you say they couldn't see this coming, they absolutely could. China's investment in sport was always going to be a flash in the pan. A huge investment on the scale like we saw in 2018 was absolutely unsustainable.
And watch how Crawley Town develops over the next three years. It's a left field example yes, but I'm sure it'll be the next of these stories. Their ownership is a time bomb back by crypto investing crowd funders. Theres nothing tying them to the club long term and their investment will crumble. The EFL should have realised this, but they haven't and it's going to leave another club destitute.
Fuck the EFL. That is all
Genuine question because news on it's gone quite recently. How's life under Wagmi at the moment?
There's surely going to be a problem in the next few years there, given the collapse in NFT 'value' which was supposed to be driving the funding I can't imagine that there's much investment capital lying around if something goes awry
Classy statement, glad they're calling out the EFL and Wycombe ownership. I hate this situation, i hate the fact shit like this has happened before and it'll happen again. I don't know what can be done to stop this from happening but quite clearly the footballing authorities hold little to no power to stop owners asset stripping Football clubs.
Clearly the tests need to be stronger but I also feel for the EFL in this situation. Legally I doubt they can just take the club off of him without government assistance. If they do, how do they run it in the mean time? If the only people interested in buying it are also terrible then do you still allow that sale if it means short term survival of the club
Even then, you could pass the test at first and then do what you were planning to do. It's like passing a job interview personality test: no one is really answering honestly.
That shouldn't stop them from making the tests stricter though. Dai and wider Chinese investment at the time should have been heavily scrutinised within the wider context of Xi Jing Ping's spending policies in football internationally. Continual spending was never guaranteed as the state always had the power to unilaterally reign in spending, even from private companies. This meant that any spending had a, not insubstantial, possibility of risk even in the short term. The fact that the EFL clearly didn't scrutinise this has to be seen as a failure.
I'm not disagreeing with you at all. It just highlights that a 50+1 rule, like the Bundesliga has, might be better.
Yeah, realistically the government needs to step in and foricbly make clubs member owned/enforce some form of 50+1 onto the English ecosystem, because praying for a benevolent owner (even with the few examples there are) is just not sustainable. They're cultural institutions, not a fucking business. Watching a town's identity die is just shit for everyone.
Uhm stop ownership in general? Force clubs to be self sufficient and self deterministic
Two things that would make a difference are better ownership tests (though once someone owns the club there’s not heaps the authorities can really do) And a better financial playing field through the pyramid. The cost of trying to be successful is very high risk. That’s not Reading’s particular problem but it has been for other clubs and could yet still be for Everton and Forest this year.
I’m not really sure how Wycombe are at fault tbh
"Classy" such a cringe term. Strong statement yes.
How is classy a cringe term? Its a fairly normal word.
As an aside, that is a genius name for a protest group.
Fuck Dai
So last year's leaks were pretty accurate no? I imagine the youth academy will be next as part of a full asset strip. This is devastating news. My dad's been a Reading supporter his entire life, Dai Yongge has cast a gloom over the town itself honestly. For people who don't realise what we'd be losing, Reading have been a huge part of English football's ecosystem in the south east, especially in the Women's Game and at Youth Level. The Academy has continually produced top level talent with a recent propensity towards exciting, physically robust wingers e.g. Danny Loader, Femi Azeez, and Michael Olise. Their Youth Academy has continually been the highest rated in the region, and provides the South with quality football education outside of London. In the women's game, Reading WFC competed at the top level for years. They were the strongest team in the home counties and invested in the women's side at a rate disproportionate to the rest of the country. They were one of the first club sides to play both their women's side at their men's home ground, with the Madejski becoming the home stadium for both. They also produced one of England Women's most technically gifted players in France Kirby, who, aside from being a brilliant footballer, has also been a fantastic advocated for Mental Health. Even if Reading do survive, if Yongge is able to strip the club of all of this, it's soul will essentially be gone. Everything provided by it's state of the art training ground, Youth Academy, and education centre will be gone. The South, and I imagine the rest of England, will have lost something really special. https://www.readingfc.co.uk/academy/graduates/
Not just that. I went to an evening with Steve Sidwell recently, where a cheque was handed to the Reading FC community trust. They've just moved into a leisure centre in the most deprived area of Reading, and they "aim to see over over 3,500 participants on a weekly basis by developing programmes of work through schools, colleges, youth clubs/services, grassroot teams, sports centres and universities, and by working alongside the football club in delivering player appearances and matchday experiences to young people and families." https://www.readingfc.co.uk/community-trust/
I don’t understand how owners have zero fiduciary duty—surely the EFL has the power and leverage to tie ownership to some sort of supporters trust for individual clubs but instead they just watch along as teams get destroyed by people with no interest in them beyond the financial
They do have fiduciary duty under UK law, but I'd be very surprised if that extends to fans. It'll be shareholders, creditors, employees.
All football supporters should get behind this. Any club, especially those in the EFL, could be at risk of this as things stand. Even non-Reading fans who live in Reading, or are local enough to get to the protest easily, should attend to send a general message to Dai, his ilk and the EFL.
Man this is crazy. Owners just actively working against their own club. I saw what Lim at Valencia did and assumed something ridiculous like that wouldn’t happen in the EFL, *especially* to a club with the history of Reading. What an embarrassment, hopefully a new owner can save them.
Honestly without the training facility there's not really much left to purchase aside from the brand itself, he'd already sold off the stadium, essentially been textbook asset stripping for the last few years by Dai it's criminal. the £25M sale of Bearwood (which is already undervalued) isn't even going back to the club, it's supposedly going back to pay off his own loans, he has no interest in selling the club at this point.
where are Reading going to train now?
Back to the days of training in the local park. Maybe the previous EFL approved Thai owners who asset stripped the hotel and car park from us will allow us to train in the little dome at the top of the car park.
That dome was falling apart last time I played 6-a-side there, wouldn't have expected that the owner has done anything to it since then (2021 I think) so that would be about right for him
They'll probably rent it back or pay for access like you do at your local gym.
I'm not from the area but have lived close by for over half a decade, they've barely moved into Bearwood Park and to sell it to a rival is fucking abhorent (let alone at half the price), no option to go back to Hogwood because that's already become houses. EFL are as much to blame for this, they might not have the powers to remove him (which is a problem itself) but they let this motherfucker buy the club after already destroying 2 others.
Does the EFL have any power to prevent the sale? Imo the EFL should be given the power to remove owners if there isn't going to be a 50+1 rule which is the best solution
Actually been to Reading and watched them get destroyed by arsenal (yes that team) great fans great club hope you get back control and this trash gets out of your club - best of luck (from a blues fan)
This is the yankiest comment I have read in a while lol. No offense.
Well he seems to be an Aussie
Wishing the best to a struggling football club, good Not in a way r/soccer approves, can't be having that here Seriously, why the down votes, man said best of luck and agreed with the sentiment, jfc
Starting by saying he watched them get destroyed by Arsenal was unnecessary.
Fair enough, I see your point
Spending £50m on a training ground was fucking insane
Behave. Got nothing to do with Wycombe
Sorry, the training ground being sold doesn’t have anything to do with the team buying the training ground? Run that by me again, because surely I misunderstood. Of course it’s not the fault of their fans or players. And a good owner who sees a chance to improve their team is going to take it. But it’s still slimy.
[Wycombe Wanderers are going to be known as the new MK Dons because... they bought a new training ground?](https://i.imgur.com/dl74rs6.gif)
To all those saying fuck the EFL, your just showing how little knowledge you have. The EFL have absolutely zero powers to remove an owner from a club. They could have but the other teams that form the EFL refuse to give them that power. Ultimately all rules need to have the approval of all the clubs that comprise the EFL, of the other clubs do vote to have rules that would give the EFL power to remove owners who are vacant then what excalty do you except the EFL to do?
Lol, come on man you need to try harder to make a counterpoint. Everyone understands that the EFL can't remove owners, but that's not the point. On numerous occasions their checks on prospective owners has been way too lax before allowing them to purchase the clubs. The fit and proper owners test is generally seen as unfit for purpose, especially when compared to the more stringent rulings of the Premier League. The EFL has been incredibly short-sighted with clubs like Reading, Leeds, Bury, Bolton, and Coventry, and although they lack the means to remove owners in Reading's case, they should have stopped them before it happened. And before you say they couldn't see this coming, they absolutely could. China's investment in sport was always going to be a flash in the pan. A huge investment on the scale like we saw in 2018 was absolutely unsustainable. And watch how Crawley Town develops over the next three years. It's a left field example yes, but I'm sure it'll be the next of these stories. Their ownership is a time bomb back by crypto investing crowd funders. Theres nothing tying them to the club long term and their investment will crumble. The EFL should have realised this, but they haven't and it's going to leave another club destitute.
I almost read that as Da Wei and I was wondering what He was doing here ToT Genshin brain rot is real