Reading fans will stage a protest at Wembley to warn England supporters that what has happened at their club “could ruin any club at any level of the English football pyramid”.
Campaigners will point out that the England team would not have the likes of Jude Bellingham, the Real Madrid star who was developed in Birmingham City’s academy, were it not for clubs lower down the pyramid.
In fact, many of England’s best players, including Harry Kane and John Stones, either started or spent time gaining experience in lower league clubs. Yet many clubs, particularly in the Football League and below, are facing the threat of going out of business due to mismanagement.
Ahead of the England’s sold-out game against Belgium on Tuesday evening, the fan-led campaign group Sell Before We Dai, who have been putting pressure on Reading owner Dai Yongge to sell their club, have raised funds for an advertising van to drive around the stadium and surrounding area.
“The match against Belgium will see players in the current England squad who wouldn’t be where they are today without clubs lower down the football pyramid, including Jude Bellingham and Ollie Watkins, who were made by Birmingham City and Exeter,” Caroline Parker, spokesperson for Sell Before We Dai, said.
“The success of these players shows why English clubs at all levels must be protected from negligent ownership, poor governance, financial mismanagement and worse.
“We want to remind fans that while it’s Reading that are in trouble today, it could be someone else tomorrow. We need the new Independent Regulator for English Football to have the necessary powers to safeguard clubs and solve systemic issues. The world is watching – collective responsibility is needed to ensure we have a regulator with real teeth.
“The future of English football depends on it.”
The campaigners, who have raised awareness of their ownership problem movement by halting games and staging a series of protests, chose the Belgium game because Yongge, alongside his sister Dai Xiu Li, bought Belgian club KSV Roeselare in 2016 that subsequently went out of business.
Reading have been docked 18 points in the past three years and have plummeted down the English football pyramid. Staff have been left not knowing if they will be paid wages and the club has been issued with winding up notices for unpaid tax.
Once considered one of the best-run clubs in the country while in the Premier League a decade ago, they are hovering above the League One relegation zone.
i revealed last week that there are several interested parties in buying the club, including from America and Saudi Arabia. But supporters are keen to keep up the pressure and raise awareness of the wider problem with football ownership.
Sell Before We Dai organised a similar stunt in December, hiring an advertising van with a large digital display to drive outside the Houses of Parliament and the offices of the EFL and Premier League.
The move was widely supported by fans at clubs across the country. Some of the advertising displays included the badges of West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield Wednesday, Southend, Morecambe, Derby and Wigan, who have all protested against ownership issues.
When announcing plans to establish a new independent regulator of English football, the Government made protecting the financial stability of clubs and the pyramid as a whole two of the new organisation’s three primary objectives.
The regulator will have powers to strengthen the test for new owners and directors “to make sure a club’s custodians are suitable and protect fans from irresponsible owners”. It will also have powers to oversee the financial plans of clubs to ensure “clubs take sensible financial decisions and risks are mitigated so they do not jeopardise the club’s future”.
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