READING and their fans are being held hostage by a Chinese owner edging them closer to what would be one of the most tragic stories in English football history.
Supporters are genuinely scared they could become Bury The Sequel after the EFL told owner Dai Yongge to sell up by April 4 or else.
The Chinese businessman has rightly been disqualified from owning a club in the Football League and ordered to sell his shares by next month.
And if he fails to do so the EFL management board will meet in late April to consider the options — which include suspending the club or booting them out altogether.
It has worrying echoes of the spring and summer months of 2019 when the EFL were trying to force Bury owner Steve Dale to sell the League One club that he paid only a pound for.
Dale was unable to provide proof of funds to finance the club then failed to sell up and the Shakers were expelled from the League after 125 years of continuous membership.
Now they’re plying their trade in the North West Counties League Premier Division, the ninth tier of English football.
Such an Armageddon scenario doesn’t bear thinking about for a club believed to be the seventh oldest in England.
The EFL are clearly trying to force his hand — with league chiefs, Reading fans plus club players and staff fed up after more than 500 days of Yongge failing to enact a sale.
A clear choice is on the table for Yongge: sell up today for somewhere around £25million as a League One club which has potential to climb to the Premier League or get booted out of the EFL and then pocket only a fraction of that amount.
Most sensible people would at this point know the game is up.
But on evidence so far, applying the law of common sense — or even showing an ounce of business acumen — is something that deserts Yongge.
The Chinese businessmen — and his sister Dai Xiu Li — incredibly allowed 99-year-old Belgian team KSV Roeselare to go bankrupt with debts of only £17,000!
Beijing Chengfeng, another club he owned, tumbled from the Chinese Super League to their third tier before they were dissolved in 2021.
Then you only have to look at how he signed players like Liam Moore on wages believed to be around £40,000-£50,000 a week — then failed to sell him to Brighton for a fee of £9MILLION with only a year left on his deal.
The defender then got crocked and walked away on a free.
Yongge is known to be stubborn, which leads to all common sense going out of the window.
And there are genuine fears he could dig his heels in.
He has already stripped the club of its main assets — their stadium and training ground.
So he could be minded to not give a hoot what happens to the club in the safe knowledge he has a couple of decent chunks of land to sell.
A big problem as things stand is the gaping hole between corporate law and competition rules.
The EFL regulations say they can disqualify an owner and order him to sell — but cannot take the shares off him like a compulsory purchase order.
Yongge could just ignore them — and, in the meantime, hold Reading FC as hostages. You take me down, you take down the club.
It has become a dangerous game of chicken.
And it brings into sharp focus why there must be changes in the law to protect community assets such as football clubs.
So a compulsory purchase can be enacted if an owner is behaving recklessly.
The good news is Yongge’s excuse that any progress on selling the club is being held up by a legal dispute with American Rob Couhig has now been officially rejected by a court.
New laws must be passed so teams like Reading cannot be held hostage by an unruly owner.
The former Wycombe owner — whose takeover bid fell through last summer — wants the £5million back he lent the club, with the training ground and stadium being put up as securities by Yongge.
Couhig’s Redwood Holdings is currently suing Yongge’s Renhe Sports Management for allegedly breaking exclusivity rules while negotiating the sale of the club last year.
That is now a side issue and Yongge cannot blame that dispute in holding up any sale.
The Royals owner was finally disqualified by the EFL after it was found he had been added to a bad creditors list by the Chinese government.
It is something Caroline Parker from fan group Sell Before We Dai has been lobbying the EFL over for some time.
Let’s hope that Yongge finally sees sense and releases the hostage that is Reading FC.
And for crying out loud can Parliament and the football authorities work together to close every single loophole that allows such a person to treat one of our oldest clubs in such a reckless way.
New laws must be passed so teams like Reading cannot be held hostage by an unruly owner.
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