What is happening at Reading? Royals under new transfer embargo after major financial struggles, constant protests and failed takeover
Today at 11:28 AM
Reading's nightmare seems to be never-ending.
The League One side have been placed under a new transfer embargo due to the club being late to file their financial accounts.
A statement from the Royals read: "This embargo has been implemented, as per EFL regulations, due to the late filing of financial accounts to Companies House, and relates to the 2022-23 accounting period.
"We are working closely with our auditing partner to finalise these accounts at the earliest opportunity – at which point the embargo will be lifted immediately."
But fans will now be on edge once again after an awful last few years where they saw their team almost cease to exist under the ownership of Dai Yongge.
Yongge has been in charge of Reading since 2017 but it has been a downward spiral ever since, with points deductions, protests and fines a regular occurrence.
And here, talkSPORT.com breaks down what has been happening at the club…
Deduction after deduction
Reading were taken over by Yongge just before they missed out on a place in the Premier League on penalties in the 2017 play-off final against Huddersfield.
Over the following seasons, the Royals failed to compete at the top of the table again despite huge sums of money being spent.
Then in 2023, the club were deducted six points due to making a late payment for the second straight campaign.
That deduction would result in relegation from the Championship to League One.
And things have kept getting worse since then, with staff being made redundant and players not being paid their wages on time.
It all led to a total of another six points being deducted in the third tier, leaving them on the brink of dropping down to League Two last season.
Fortunately, under manager Ruben Selles, they avoided relegation.
But it took their overall tally of deductions since 2021 up to 18 and fans had simply had enough of how their club was being treated.
And that has been the motivation behind constant protests from the supporters…
'Sell Before We Dai'
Yongge invested over £200million in the hope of securing promotion to the Premier League when he arrived at Reading, a move that backfired massively.
The club have since seen seismic losses in the club’s accounts, as mentioned.
At the worst point, the were unable to pay player wages, staff members, suppliers and the HMRC who have issued multiple winding-up petitions.
It has all led to fans, led by a group named 'Sell Before We Dai', venting their frustrations with regular protests to get Yongge out.
Last season, Reading supporters stormed the pitch in a game against Port Vale as their anger towards the owner reached boiling point.
Chants of ‘Get out of our club’ and ‘We want Dai Yongge out’ were followed by hundreds of tennis balls being thrown onto the pitch.
They then refused to exit the field, setting off flares and holding up banners, with the game being abandoned after 16 minutes as a result.
This was the most serious of many protests from the fanbase and it forced to EFL to step in.
The Football League asked the Reading owner to either 'fund the club adequately' or 'make immediate arrangements to sell' in January.
Yongge was fined around £80,000 in total after failing to cover the salaries of players and staff.
He has put the club up for sale since, but in March, he sent Royals fans into a frenzy again as he tried to sell the training ground for half the price they paid for it.
That was a decision that led to talkSPORT host and former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan ripping into Yongge for having 'no interest in the football club'.
It was a deal that the footballing world was left fuming with and fortunately, it was never completed by Wycombe Wanderers who were the club set to buy the facility from Reading.
And it was, in fact, former Wycombe owner Rob Couhig who would end up looking set to free the club from their misery.
Takeover turmoil
But again Reading were unable to end their suffering.
Couhig was granted a period of exclusivity and looked to be on the brink of taking over the club in September, with him even attending a game.
However, despite passing the EFL's owners' and directors' test, talks broke down late in negotiations as he and Yongge could not come to an agreement.
Due to that, all of the money that Couhig had lent the club had to be paid back to him, meaning once again that Reading were in trouble.
A statement read: “Mr Dai remains committed to the sale of Reading Football Club and provisions are in place to fund the club until a transaction is completed.
“The club acknowledges and appreciates the financial support provided by the potential purchaser during recent months. All loans have now been paid back to the potential purchaser in full along with the accrued interest.”
It has Reading searching for yet another new owner as life under Yongge continues.
They are reported to have enough funding to last until December while any prospective buyer has to fund the club while the process is ongoing.
Although that hasn't put off an unnamed party, with Reading announcing that there is another buyer that has now been given a period of exclusivity.
In the same statement that revealed their latest transfer embargo, they revealed: "The Club can confirm it has agreed to a period of exclusivity with a potential purchaser.
"Both parties will now work to finalise terms with the intention of completing a sale at the earliest opportunity. This exclusivity period also includes further provision to fund the club until the transaction's intended completion.
"The proposed sale includes Mr Dai's shareholding in The Reading Football Club Limited, as well as the Select Car Leasing Stadium and Bearwood Park training ground.”
So there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the Reading fans have been through this before and won't be getting their hopes up too soon.
Should the worst happen again, then the future of the Royals will be very, very bleak.
