Reading’s Dai Yongge has been disqualified as an owner by the English Football League (EFL), putting the League One side’s future in peril.
Dai must sell the club by 5 April or risk the Royals being suspended from the EFL.
It emerged in a court hearing on Friday that Dai was disqualified under the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test, something which the EFL later confirmed in a statement.
The disqualification is understood to be linked to Dai’s business interests in China rather than anything related to Reading but it requires him to divest from the club within 28 days of the sanction being imposed.
“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,” an EFL statement read.
One of those options is to suspend the club, but it is also possible an extension to divest could be granted.
Reading supporters have long called for Dai to sell the club, regularly protesting against his ownership.
The Royals have been deducted 18 points under Dai’s watch. Reading’s owners claim to be actively seeking a sale, but one offer from former striker Roger Smee was rejected in December.
The EFL, which failed in an earlier bid to disqualify Dai at an independent commission hearing in November 2023, said it would “continue to work closely with Reading to progress a sale of the club at the earliest opportunity”.
The court hearing where the disqualification came to light centres around a dispute between Dai and former Wycombe owner Rob Couhig, who sought to buy Reading before a deal collapsed last September.
“All the ingredients are there for someone to run the club properly,” Caroline Parker, a spokesperson for Sell Before We Dai, told The i Paper last year.
“We’ve given blood, sweat and tears to try to get this man out of the club. We’ve tried everything. We couldn’t have been more high profile. And what’s it got us to? Nothing.”
A statement from Reading issued on Friday said Dai “remains committed to working with the EFL to sell the club and secure its long-term future”.
Additional reporting from PA.
The tragic irony of Reading FC
By Daniel Storey, Chief Football Writer
Walking up to the home of Reading is a distinctly doleful experience in 2024, like passing through the high street of a town you used to live in and knowing you can never get those years back. This was the house that John Madejski built that once bore his name, full most weeks during the good years when magic dust seemed to land upon Reading for a while.
Madejski was chairman from 1990, a man who grew up in a children’s home in the town and then made his many millions. He rescued Reading from receivership, built them a new home and then funded a dream not through wanton overspending but by savviness and sensible delegation to well-appointed managers.
Reading had three seasons in the Premier League – the latest in 2012-13 – and finished eighth in 2006-07. They didn’t spend more than £3m on a player until 2017. They made a cult hero team by making good with what they had and who they found along the way: Steve Coppell, Brian McDermott, Adam Le Fondre, Kevin Doyle, Nicky Shorey, Graeme Murty, Stephen Hunt, Dave Kitson, Ibrahima Sonko, Steve Sidwell and more. Reading were a single point away from European football in 2007.
That is the cast list you think of when you walk around the Select Car Leasing Stadium now and not only because their faces, frozen in moments of shared joy, adorn walls that have witnessed far worse times since. Reading have spent more than a year in a state of civil war, an emergency that gets worse with each passing month and each potential takeover that fails. There is one message above all others here: leave fast, Dai Yongge.
Read Daniel’s full thoughts on the sorry state of affairs at Reading here
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/FsmRK6P
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