In 2017, Reading and Huddersfield battled each other for the right to play in the Premier League at Wembley. In truth, it was an absolute stinker of a game, probably one of the worst Play-Off Finals ever. As a spectacle it was dreadful.
At the time, Reading were possibly one kick away from heading into the higher echelons of the English football pyramid for the third time. Fast forward to 2023, just six years or 2300 days and a smidge ago, Reading sit next to the bottom of League One. They are far more likely to drop through the trap door again for the second season in succession.
For the outsiders looking in, you would ask yourself “What in the wide world of sports has happened here?” and that question is a very valid one indeed. In short, we shot for the moon and hit Swindon. The longer answer I’ll attempt to answer here.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time of the that ignominious play-off final was that Reading were being sold from the then current Thai owners to a Chinese owner, Dai Yongge. Dai had built his fortunes in China via the way of converting former air-raid shelters into vast shopping malls, amongst other things. In short, he was loaded, properly loaded. In its rawest form that’s what you want from an owner, right? Loads of money to invest, lots of bold and grand ideas awash with dreams of the promised land and beyond. Be careful what you wish for.
The writing was somewhat on the wall as it transpired. Dai, and his sister, Dai Xui Li had previously failed the Premier League’s Fit and Proper Person test in 2016 to buy Hull City. Undeterred, they tried and successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of the EFL and were allowed to buy Reading FC. This was not their first foray into football ownership either. Both Yongge and Xiu Li had their fingers in the pies of Beijing Renhe and KSV Roeselare in Belgium. Neither club now exists.
At the time, fans were none the wiser but we hoped for the best, as all fans do. We had hoped for a different outcome in 2017, but now we simply want our club to exist and not go the way of the aforementioned clubs.
Fast forward to October 2023, Reading find themselves being the very definition of a club in turmoil. The crimes of the ownership of Dai Yongge hang heavy over the only professional club in Berkshire. Dai has a reputation some say of being a bit of a gambler, reportedly seen in the swanky clubs of London playing Blackjack and the like. What we all realise these days with respect to ownership of a football club is that you really shouldn’t have a gambler at the helm, but gamble he did to disastrous results.
Since the play-off defeat, Dai overpaid, over extended, over reached with his plans, if you could be so kind as to call them ‘plans’. Aided and abetted by super-agent, Kia Joorabchian, they bought and paid badly. The once controlled wages were now escalating wildly out of control. Players like Royston Drenthe, once of Real Madrid and Everton, were turning out for the Royals, and by and large, were dreadful. At times, we still looked like a reasonable unit but the common thread of the team looking like a bunch of mercenaries and not for each other held firm.
Once lauded and revered as a well-run club, Reading were now anything but. But the disasters on the field were nothing compared to what lie ahead. Huge eye-watering losses and terrifying wage to revenue figures caught the eye of the EFL and words like “embargo” and “points deductions” started to become commonplace.
Under Dai’s reign Reading have had 16 points deducted which resulted in relegation into League One. In fairness, the football served up under the then manager, Paul Ince, warranted relegation, it was a dire watch. But this was the result of a club under embargo from signing players for money and hasn’t done so since signing Ovie Ejaria from Liverpool in 2020.
The unsteady decline under Dai’s reign has been a slow and painful one. Worse still, Dai started to fail to pay wages for the staff and players. Fans can be thick-skinned at the best of times, but when the livelihoods of staff come into view a much different spin is put on events. Rumours were that Dai was having trouble getting money out of China; a symptom of the post-Covid financial world we fans have little handle on.
Most of the time fans of clubs don’t think or worry about if and when wages are going to be paid, that’s not what we support our teams for, but fans of Reading have learned much about finances, ownership and off the field activites in recent years. It’s not what fans want to be involved with, but these are the harsh realities of dealing with an owner that never had a plan, never had the care, never showed the responsibility that is the bare essential that is required from those who should know better.
Ever since Reading’s relegation to League One there has been a sense that the owner had long since lost interest. Payments of wages each month began to become question marks as well as paying tax to the HMRC. The current season was in its infancy when Reading faced yet another deduction for late payment of wages. The CEO, Dayong Pang, appointed as Dai’s gopher, hide nor hair of him has been since since last May. That pretty much says all that’s needed regarding the importance and intention of the owner these days.
The current team are made up of academy players and a smattering of experienced pros. But still, we’ve managed to lure potential stars of the future in Ben Elliott from Chelsea and Charlie Savage, son of Robbie, from Manchester United. We have a coach in Ruben Selles (formerly coach and caretaker manager of Southampton) who is plying his trade as a full-time manager for the first time. It has been a steep learning curve for all concerned. Sitting next to bottom of League One and having not won away from home in nigh on a year, the green shoots of recovery are not growing any time soon in this autumn of discontent.
The atmosphere around the club is dark and gloomy. Thoughts of the club going out of business or administration are rife and realistic. Dai Yongge hasn’t attended a game this season and has barely communicated since the relegation last May. In fact, nobody knows what his voice sounds like, he has never communicated verbally to the fans. His English is apparently “poor”.
Fans groups have recently united under the banner of “Sell Before We Dai”. An initiative designed to put pressure on Dai to sell to someone (anyone) who can rescue the club before the inevitable could happen. Typically, Reading fans are of the milder variety; we’re a jovial bunch that is proud of our history and one that has a tight knit relationship with former players. We don’t ask for much. But what we do ask is that our club is run honestly and with integrity. Dai has been irresponsible and careless with a football club that means a huge amount to many people over many decades. His actions and inactions have been reprehensible.
As such, a community, much like what we have seen at other troubled clubs like Southend United and Scunthorpe United, is flourishing. Fans are determined to do everything they can to put pressure on the owner to sell the club. In recent games the fans have resorted to throwing tennis balls on the pitch to raise awareness of the issues (and its worked). Latterly, fans took to avoiding wearing club colours and to adorn black clothing instead, a nod to the club potentially dying in its current state. This was another great success. Seeing 80-90% of the crowd bedecked in just black is quite the spectacle. A march from the town centre to the SCL Stadium, all 2.4 miles of it, is planned for this coming weekend prior to the game against the league leaders, Portsmouth.
All in all, it’s been a helter-skelter ride that has had few high points but some criminally masterminded lows in those six years since our latest heartbreaking play-off defeat. (That was our third play-off final defeat, certainly not our first crushing rodeo at new or old Wembley!) The current mindset is one of survival alone, the league table and possible further relegation to League Two are mere by-products of this sad tale. Confidence among the playing squad is, understandably, at an all time low. They too feel the pressure and strain of the situation. It is impossible not to feel for everyone who works and plays for Reading; an organisation that is being run into the ground by an owner who has treated the club like a toy. He’s long since gotten bored of his toy, sadly.
On the brighter side, there is interest in buying the football club. With a relatively new stadium and a Premier League class training ground (the only good thing that the owner has ever done for the club), there is a decent set of resources that do not need to be rebuilt. However, the owner is determined to get whatever price he deems to be fair for the massive losses he has incurred whilst owning Reading. Kinda ironic! Whether someone or some group feels that valuation is worthy of that amount remains to be seen.
Everyone associated with the club is tired, emotionally drained and depressed by the situation that Reading finds itself in. The literal motto of selling before we die is stark and ominous. We could well fall through another trap door in the pyramid but fans will accept that every time over not having a club to support at all. It’s a stark reminder to any fan that if it can happen to Reading, it could well happen to your club if the wrong set of grabbing hands grab all they can.