Reading’s match with Port Vale on Saturday was abandoned after fans invaded the pitch in the 16th minute. The FA is investigating the incident, while the club fear a fine or potential stadium ban.
Michael Hincks speaks to one fan, who wishes to remain anonymous amid the threat of individual bans, after they ran onto the pitch in protest against owner Dai Yongge…
Before the match, there were nerves and a curiosity about what was going to happen. You’re nervous at football anyway, but we weren’t thinking about the match. My brother and I always trade predictions and guess team news, but that just didn’t feel like it mattered, which is really shit. The football was very secondary.
As soon as the match kicked off there were tennis balls thrown, so we got the feeling, ‘Oh okay, something is going to kick off here’. It did seem inevitable a pitch invasion was going to happen when it did.
About 15 minutes in, in Club 1871, the top section closest to the away fans which is typically the loudest, you could see a steady stream walking down the stand so you knew it was coming in the 16th minute.
Once I saw that I felt a little less concerned about individual punishment, but it’s still on my mind. I’m half-expecting an email telling me I’m banned, but I think there were too many on the pitch. The steward warned about facial recognition, but she was very calm and wasn’t threatening, just telling us about the risks of getting caught.
When the invasion looked likely you’re excited but nervous. You don’t really know what is going to happen, and you don’t know how many people are going to go over. I actually slipped when I got onto the pitch after leaning down to pick up a tennis ball and boot it.
Then suddenly amid a blur of people you’re there in the centre circle. You do a 360 and see the stadium, it was surreal. I’ve done a pitch invasion for celebrating before, in 2006 when we were promoted, and there was one here in 2012 when we got promoted to the Premier League a second time.
But this felt weird. With that first one in 2006, I was a lot younger and it also felt like you weren’t doing anything wrong. That’s accepted and expected with promotion, it felt like something the club would have been happy about – whereas not this time.
This is very much a moment of uncertainty for us, especially after this last week where coaches have been let go and the catering firm are no longer working at the training ground. We’ve heard players are eating microwave meals there. That’s what tipped it over, it feels like we’re ramping up the cost cutting and are getting closer to the edge.
I was on there for close to an hour but wasn’t in the group that stayed on until it got abandoned. My brother and I went off a little bit earlier as he was a bit worried about getting arrested as he’s going on holiday shortly. I didn’t think that would happen, there were too many people.
There was then an announcement over the tannoy, saying the players want to play and people need to get off. I thought fair enough, we want to support the team, it’s not the team we’re pissed off about, so that was my thinking while on the pitch.
There were a lot of people in the stands booing, and you had a lot of time to think when you were on there. I was texting friends, family, my dad was saying we should get off with fears of a points deduction or fines – he’s right, and in the back of your mind you’re worrying if you’re doing something bad, but I don’t think so. The greater threat to the club is Dai Yongge.
We shouldn’t have to make these calculations, you shouldn’t just have to stay silent and do a limited protest. I understand there’s a point where it goes too far, but it was for the most part peaceful.
I felt conflicted, but we feel the good outweighs the bad and the coverage we got does make it worth it.
It is bigger than Reading. There’s no reason it won’t happen to anybody else. We’ve seen similar at Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Scunthorpe, we saw Bury go under. Bury were the most openly asset-stripped.
And in the last few weeks it appears to have tipped to asset stripping here, which to me suggests we’re closer to the brink. Dayong Pang, the club’s CEO, said “very tough” decisions “unfortunately” had to be made last week – after the first-team coaches were let go – to protect the future of our club, but I just don’t know what happens if Dai Yongge stays.
Again, Pang told fans Yongge is “actively working to secure the sale of the club”, but I don’t believe Reading is his priority.
I think with administration you need consent with the owners, so realistically we are looking at liquidation but I don’t know when that happens. If it’s an endless cycle of transfer embargoes and points deductions, that’s just shit.
One thing to look out for is the EFL penalty. You don’t get matches abandoned often, but I’d like to think they replay it, maybe behind closed doors, and maybe there’s a fine that Dai would have to pay, which is fair enough.
I have no idea about what will happen next. [Protest group] Sell Before We Dai talk about the need for a regulation around owners, with Reading possibly being a test case for the proposed independent football regulator.
On a smaller scale, the security guard said she was worried about whether she would get paid in full or not, which is fair enough.
So that was another thing, I felt guilty that the security or food staff would not get paid in full. And similarly with the Port Vale fans, who have come down spending triple figures potentially, it’s a long way for a match to be called off. A lot were understanding, and I felt bad about that, but it doesn’t change whether we were right to do it or not.
Some of the Reading fans, too, just wanted a day out to see the football. If you’re paying 20-odd quid per ticket as a family of four, you pay a lot for a day out, but you haven’t really seen more than 10 minutes of football.
That pales in comparison, but could feel a lot of people feel shortchanged in a cost of living crisis, though it’s Port Vale fans and the staff I feel most for.
It ties into that confliction. Protests are never easy, you worry about the collateral. I think we did the right thing, but there were some nagging thoughts.
Ultimately I’m proud that so many Reading fans stood up for their club. I hope we can all look back on it – with Reading still existing and with a new owner – and know we played some small part in letting people know about our club’s plight.
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