Reading FC x Wycombe Vultures debacle...

[CoolClaret]

I've mentioned this previously, but modern football increasingly embodies the opposite of what sports were originally intended to represent and is imo, rotten.

This was clearly illustrated today with Wycombe's predatory move to acquire Reading FC's training facilities - a club that is visibly falling apart, simply because they could secure a bargain, completely disregarding the broader consequences.

It's sad and an indictment of the times... Anonymous Claret commented similar early today about a real conflict between his values and his support for his football club, which was a view shared by many.

It's really no good stuff like this and really hits home the state of the modern game - yet another working class sport/passtime hijacked by the moneymen for their benefit.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... le-wycombe
https://theathletic.com/5339939/2024/03 ... wood-park/

[daveisaclaret]

I find it hard to fault Wycombe.

The FA, the Football League, clubs and fans alike are all sat back watching Reading fall into likely oblivion and just as with Bury nobody with means is willing to lift a finger to stop it. Wycombe refusing a bargain when offered it might be a nice gesture of solidarity but it'd be losing out on a good deal for what? It isn't going to save Reading.

[CoolClaret]

Meant to add (cannot edit) -

A single PL player transfer could quite literally fund a lower league club for years upon years, it's wrong to witness a 153-year-old club crumble because of a questionable owner. It just doesn't sit right with me - surely changes are needed?

[Awayfromburnley]

Is this just effectively capitalism in action?

[Brugge Claret]

Reading are a team that had their day in the sun,and seemed such a well run club but since John Madejski left have crashed and burned.

[CoolClaret]

Is this just effectively capitalism in action?

Pretty much.

[Quickenthetempo]

Was it Preston that bought Bolton's training ground in Euxton?
Wasn't much fuss then.

[Chester Perry]

Someone who occasionally reads the MMT told me recently that its content is a prime illustration of the death throes of Capitalism in action

lets up that Wycombe do not end up like Wigan who bought Bolton's training facility before their own financial downfall where they ended up selling it to Preston

[CoolClaret]

Was it Preston that bought Bolton's training ground in Euxton?
Wasn't much fuss then.

I wasn't aware of that.

[Brugge Claret]

Didn’t Reading signed a couple of up and coming Irish stars we were hoping to sign? I think Kevin Long was one of them.

[claretburns]

Reading are a team that had their day in the sun,and seemed such a well run club but since John Madejski left have crashed and burned.

And the fans hounded Madejeski out of the club for being a poor owner!

[Murger]

Didn’t Reading signed a couple of up and coming Irish stars we were hoping to sign? I think Kevin Long was one of them.

Wasn’t it Kevin Doyle and Shane Long?

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Wycombe, or their owner, are paying £22 million apparently for Readings training ground

Let’s see where that money ends up

As for Reading, they’re just a lesser/another version of Rovers or Bolton, having lived beyond their means for decades and can’t do without someone else’s money

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Wasn’t it Kevin Doyle and Shane Long?

Yeah
They signed Doyle and also Long to keep Doyle company

[Chester Perry]

Wycombe, or their owner, are paying £22 million apparently for Readings training ground

Let’s see where that money ends up

As for Reading, they’re just a lesser/another version of Rovers or Bolton, having lived beyond their means for decades and can’t do without someone else’s money

the reports I have read suggest Reading have poured £50m into it so that is one hell of a haircut on it

[Woodleyclaret]

We live in Wokingham and I worked for 6 yrs at JMA John Madjeski Academy which he put £23m of his own money when the local Reading Council were happy to see a failing school in South Reading struggle.
I don't remember at any time Sir John being given grief all fans viewed his tenure as the best they had had.They got a new ground and Premier league football all thanks to Madjeskis money
This couldn't go on so he looked for new investors and found son of a Russian billionaire who turned out not to give son any money to run Reading
So new man came in and as usual the fit and proper test is found wanting
The current incumbent is screwing the Club into the ground and his latest plan to sell off the excellent facilities on the training ground for
half it's cost the latest insanity.
Reading have a loyal 8,000 - 10,000 fan base and deserve better.Although it's worth remembering Reading were a perennial Div3 team before Madjeski and his deep pockets

[Claretitus]

I regularly drive past the Reading FC Training facility. It’s quite new, and impressive. Wycombe Wanderers probably looking at it as a good investment, as it is in a residential area, and the land probably worth several million pounds.

[ClaretTony]

What’s happen at Reading is scandalous and their fans are being let down right, left and centre by the league, the FA etc. Dai Yongge is destroying the club. He says the process to sell it is ongoing with one hand but then sells the training ground with the other.

It doesn’t matter whether they are a big club, a small club or whatever in between. It doesn’t matter that Madejski took them to a level way beyond their expectations. This bloke is killing the club and for those who care, it is downright wrong, and they deserve the support of football fans everywhere in their fight.

This training ground sale looks as dodgy as hell.

Someone mentioned Wigan buying Bolton’s at Euxton. They did when Bolton were in admin so a different story. Preston then bought it from Wigan in the same circumstances.

[Brugge Claret]

What’s happen at Reading is scandalous and their fans are being let down right, left and centre by the league, the FA etc. Dai Yongge is destroying the club. He says the process to sell it is ongoing with one hand but then sells the training ground with the other.

It doesn’t matter whether they are a big club, a small club or whatever in between. It doesn’t matter that Madejski took them to a level way beyond their expectations. This bloke is killing the club and for those who care, it is downright wrong, and they deserve the support of football fans everywhere in their fight.

This training ground sale looks as dodgy as hell.

Someone mentioned Wigan buying Bolton’s at Euxton. They did when Bolton were in admin so a different story. Preston then bought it from Wigan in the same circumstances.

Sounds a bit like somewhere a little closer down the M65.

[ClaretTony]

Sounds a bit like somewhere a little closer down the M65.

Nothing like. I can’t fathom what’s going on at all but I feel for those Reading fans.

[Chester Perry]

What’s happen at Reading is scandalous and their fans are being let down right, left and centre by the league, the FA etc. Dai Yongge is destroying the club. He says the process to sell it is ongoing with one hand but then sells the training ground with the other.

It doesn’t matter whether they are a big club, a small club or whatever in between. It doesn’t matter that Madejski took them to a level way beyond their expectations. This bloke is killing the club and for those who care, it is downright wrong, and they deserve the support of football fans everywhere in their fight.

This training ground sale looks as dodgy as hell.

Someone mentioned Wigan buying Bolton’s at Euxton. They did when Bolton were in admin so a different story. Preston then bought it from Wigan in the same circumstances.

There are a number of issues surrounding the Reading situation

- Dai Yongge has actually chucked a lot of money at the club, without much success

- That lack of success and a change in political direction in China has probably made it difficult for Yongge to get more money out of China, though you are unlikely to heat Yongge describe it as such, though we have seen it repeatedly with clubs across Europe with clubs owned by Chinese nationals

- The selling off of assets is a standard act of any struggling business that cannot obtain funds from other means and is exactly what an administrator would do - that is all within company law so there is nothing that the football authorities can do about it, unless it stops foreign nationals taking charge of English clubs - that is against the law and government policy

[IanMcL]

The owners are sucking our money. This is theft.

[dsr]

Wycombe, or their owner, are paying £22 million apparently for Readings training ground

Let’s see where that money ends up

As for Reading, they’re just a lesser/another version of Rovers or Bolton, having lived beyond their means for decades and can’t do without someone else’s money

Where do Wycombe get £22m from?

[ClaretTony]

Just seen this which was included when Reading received planning permission to build the new training centre.

Reading Planning.jpg (47.87 KiB) Viewed 1391 times

[bfcjg]

Benefactors should be banned from football, it should be money in from turnover only that can be spent, commercial loans from legitimate lenders only with a clear business plan as to how it will be paid back approved by an independent panel. Clubs should grow organically or just be content where you are but with a solid future . It might be simplistic but look at the clubs in trouble due to benefactors pulling out, and clubs in trouble whilst attempting to compete with benefactor owned clubs.

[Falcon]

Benefactors should be banned from football, it should be money in from turnover only that can be spent, commercial loans from legitimate lenders only with a clear business plan as to how it will be paid back approved by an independent panel. Clubs should grow organically or just be content where you are but with a solid future . It might be simplistic but look at the clubs in trouble due to benefactors pulling out, and clubs in trouble whilst attempting to compete with benefactor owned clubs.

This would work but only if the prize / TV money was more equally shared, or else no clubs would ever move particularly. The rich would keep getting richer.

[Colburn_Claret]

Meant to add (cannot edit) -

A single PL player transfer could quite literally fund a lower league club for years upon years, it's wrong to witness a 153-year-old club crumble because of a questionable owner. It just doesn't sit right with me - surely changes are needed?

It doesn't sit right with most people, but the fault still lies with the owners.

[bfcmik]

Meant to add (cannot edit) -

A single PL player transfer could quite literally fund a lower league club for years upon years, it's wrong to witness a 153-year-old club crumble because of a questionable owner. It just doesn't sit right with me - surely changes are needed?

That is business though. The PL has a product that people want to buy and are prepared to spend £Billions every year to get access to. Part of the desire to access the product is the fact that many of the best players and managers in the world are on view, thus the huge transfer fees and 'big name' revolving door.

The EFL, along with the SPL, Welsh and Northern Irish Leagues do not have the same demand so therefore do not have the best players, or, if they do, then it's not for long! Vicious circle.

Tesco and Sainsbury aren't expected to fund my local 6-10 corner shop to help keep it in business so why should football clubs. Before the advent of TV money, clubs below the 1st division were still developing talent that they hoped would get them a promotion or 2 before being sold to a top tier club to pay for the running of the club. Most teams in the football pyramid still carry on in that manner even today.

[CoolClaret]

That is business though. The PL has a product that people want to buy and are prepared to spend £Billions every year to get access to. Part of the desire to access the product is the fact that many of the best players and managers in the world are on view, thus the huge transfer fees and 'big name' revolving door.

The EFL, along with the SPL, Welsh and Northern Irish Leagues do not have the same demand so therefore do not have the best players, or, if they do, then it's not for long! Vicious circle.

Tesco and Sainsbury aren't expected to fund my local 6-10 corner shop to help keep it in business so why should football clubs. Before the advent of TV money, clubs below the 1st division were still developing talent that they hoped would get them a promotion or 2 before being sold to a top tier club to pay for the running of the club. Most teams in the football pyramid still carry on in that manner even today.

It's not that simple though is it? I mean it is if you want to look at it through that lens but the sport certainly didn't emerge that way.

How many people attach intrinsic meaning to your local corner shop? Actually, play that out, I do believe old businesses that you see in Britain and Europe still running strong should get our business vs a chain store. Much prefer having a leisurely walk around Hebden or Haworth than driving to some Eurogarage-American-inspired-strip-mall crap filled with your dime a dozen chain storess.

What we have in England with football is proper sporting heritage and imo intrinsic meaning attached to every club - not pop up franchise crap. Our clubs need better protection than they're getting.

No football pyramid = a franchise league - boring and why support a team that can upsticks and move any time? In fact extrapolate that - why support Burnley? We realistically aren't going to win any major trophy with football on it's current trajectory - why not just pack it in and support a big team? See - it's more nuanced isn't it... Almost like there's more to it than what you're suggesting.

Is it a rosy way of looking at thing? Perhaps - but I value tradition and heritage more than the bottom dollar. The money men clearly don't but what have they given us that's decent anyway?

All top level, popular sport has emerged from the working man and I believe historic clubs should be saved. How you do it is another question.

[benstone12]

Btcmik would you be happy if and when alk pull out and start selling assets and the club tumbles down the division whilst everyone stands and watches on?

[Goddy]

My view is it's all somewhere in between bfcmik and cool clarets thoughts.

So, I agree that I wouldn't expect Tesco to fund the corner shop but then Tesco doesn't have some form of reliance on that corner shop. The Premier League probably wouldn't be anywhere near as strong without the football pyramid underneath it. For example, loaning young players out to EFL clubs clearer benefits the Prem League clubs doing the loaning.

Equally, we have to accept that heritage etc is all good and well but actually only of real interest to the committed fans. I'm not sure the average, say, Crystal Palace fan gives too hoots about Burnley's heritage/history.

As some gave said, it's all very nuanced but sad that Readung, or any club, is being run into the ground like this.

[Quickenthetempo]

Plans on hold.

Statement reads like Wycombe are holding off for nice reasons, then last sentence mentions the clause that only Reading can use it.

[quoonbeatz]

The price of plastic.

[houseboy]

Just out of interest when did football become a ‘business’? I’m not sure I can pinpoint the time it ceased to be a sport and turned into business. I assume the metamorphosis started when the PL was formed (remember the original daft idea of having a closed shop with members dependant on ground size and support?). But the lines seem blurred somewhat. Somewhere along the road we have taken a terrible wrong turn. It’s accepted the way it is now because many fans don’t know any difference, they are too young to remember football as a sport and just think of it as a sort of game thing involving lots of money and billionaires running around on a patch of grass chasing a ball. It’s a shame really because I remember when football was a sport and people didn’t look at new signings as re-saleable assets. People didn’t boast about how much their club had spent in the then non-existent transfer window and players couldn’t hold their club to ransom because they could ‘go on a free in twelve months’.
It’s all really very strange how football became the odd thing that it has become. Can anyone explain in plain English how football turned into the avaricious monster it has become? Billionaire owners? Foreign ‘investment’? Sky TV? All of the above? I’m kinda sad because I really love football but I’m not sure I love or even like what it has turned into.

[Wokingclaret]

Just seen this which was included when Reading received planning permission to build the new training centre.


Reading Planning.jpg

Brilliant

[Chester Perry]

Just out of interest when did football become a ‘business’? I’m not sure I can pinpoint the time it ceased to be a sport and turned into business. I assume the metamorphosis started when the PL was formed (remember the original daft idea of having a closed shop with members dependant on ground size and support?). But the lines seem blurred somewhat. Somewhere along the road we have taken a terrible wrong turn. It’s accepted the way it is now because many fans don’t know any difference, they are too young to remember football as a sport and just think of it as a sort of game thing involving lots of money and billionaires running around on a patch of grass chasing a ball. It’s a shame really because I remember when football was a sport and people didn’t look at new signings as re-saleable assets. People didn’t boast about how much their club had spent in the then non-existent transfer window and players couldn’t hold their club to ransom because they could ‘go on a free in twelve months’.
It’s all really very strange how football became the odd thing that it has become. Can anyone explain in plain English how football turned into the avaricious monster it has become? Billionaire owners? Foreign ‘investment’? Sky TV? All of the above? I’m kinda sad because I really love football but I’m not sure I love or even like what it has turned into.

I wrote this over a year ago as part of a larger article for The London Clarets - it covers most of the transformation of Football stopping becoming a sport and more a business

-------

'Not for Profit’
You may recall that our club, originally formed in 1882, became a limited company, Burnley
Football and Athletic Club Limited, on September 29 1897; all contemporary clubs did the same
thing. In truth, there was a growing need for them to become more formalised business entities:
investments in grounds (as we used to call them) and other infrastructure increased the associated
liabilities, meaning it became essential for them to do so. This is the point in time when football
indisputably became an industry rather than just a sporting pastime.

Such change brought with it a distinct set of concerns for the Football Association. In its view,
football clubs operating as businesses opened up opportunity for manipulation, exploitation and
profiteering by ruthless and/or unscrupulous owners. Those concerns, which also extended to the
game’s competitions, would become entrenched in the mindsets and actions of those who
governed football for years to come. Just think back to the words of Football League founder
William McGregor in 1909, that I have previously quoted: “Beware of the clever, sharp men who
are creeping into the game.”

Seeking to ensure that that the game as a whole, rather than a few individuals, would benefit from
this increased commercialisation, the FA carefully developed a distinctly strategic response. 1892
saw the introduction of the first part of what would become Rule 34; it limited the maximum value
of dividends that could be distributed to shareholders to 5% of the value of the shares. Additional
elements introduced throughout that decade proved robust enough against the perceived threat
for the next 80+ years, ensuring that:
• No director would be entitled to receive any remuneration in respect of their office as director;
• No owner could wind up a club and profit from selling the ground – any proceeds from such a
sale had to be donated to charity or another such institution.

The FA’s intent was to defend the idea that Football Clubs were sports clubs first and foremost.
Directors were custodians of their clubs, and their duty was to run a club for its and football’s
sake, not be in it to make money. For the most part they succeeded. While there was never a
golden age of selfless club owners, the system of clubs as not for profit companies prevented the
excessive exploitation of fans, encouraging loyalty and regular attendance, which in turn
facilitated the sport’s exceptional growth and the uniquely enduring relationship between
communities, fans and clubs.

Negligence
By the late 1970s, a changing attitude in the boardrooms of the biggest clubs was becoming clearly
evident. First, the ‘gate share’ was abolished in the Football League, then the equal share of TV
monies across the 92 was ended; each subsequent TV cycle saw distributions increasingly favour
the top flight. In a move that the FA vaguely attributed to a desire for ‘better, more professional
management’ of clubs, Rule 34 was amended in 1981, raising the dividend threshold to 15% of
share value and permitting directors to be paid providing they worked full-time at their club.

The FA effectively abandoned the spirit of Rule 34 in 1983 in an act that can only be described as
negligence. Irving Scholar wrote to the FA asking permission to float Tottenham Hotspur on the
stock market, his plan being to place the club under the control of a Holding Company and float
that, not the club itself. The FA, lacking both the foresight and conviction of their Victorian
forebears, did not even bother to respond to the request, leaving Scholar to proceed unchecked. A
number of clubs followed the Spurs example over the next two decades, though only Manchester
United really prospered under this model. The Edwards family, ending a custodian dynasty,
eventually made £93m from their shareholding (bought for £840k) while the club paid well over
twice the amount in dividends (£61.7m) than it raised for investment in itself (£23.3m).

Quietly admitting that as the rules ‘were not working’ there was no point in having them on the
books, the FA simply dropped all but the section on profiting from the future sale of the assets of
any wound-up club. This remnant of the rule remains, although it has not been enough to stop
some from profiting from the sale of grounds, perhaps most famously by then Brighton owners Bill
Archer and Greg Stanley with the Goldstone Ground. In a tale, whose debt-fuelled beginnings have
been regularly repeated down the years, the ground was ‘sold’ to the owners in lieu of debts, but
was then swiftly sold onwards to developers for vast profit.

At the FA, the systemic negligence continued, some would say it has never stopped. Failing to act
on the findings of the Hillsborough Inquiry, the Football Task Force and other proceedings while
also being complicit in the formation of the Premier League, has led to a situation where now few
believe they are fit to govern the modern game. So, it is of little surprise that the government
looks likely to appoint an Independent Regulator of Football with powers over financial, club
ownership and club governance regulation.

Consequences
The game has been transformed into one of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, its authorities effectively
absent from influence and control during football’s second commercial revolution that has
brought about astronomical increases in revenues for the few and catastrophic cost increases for
everyone else. The unique loyalty of the fan customer is exploited by excessive pricing and the
burden of broadcasters changing match days and times at short notice and seemingly at whim.
At the highest levels, local owners are the anomaly; billionaires, private equity, investment groups
and nation state sovereign funds have taken over. Lower down, we have a never-ending tale of
clubs in financial woe and the ludicrous situation where it is the norm for clubs to pay more in
wages than they earn in revenues. Some clubs have effectively been taken from the communities
they serve, made subject to varying degrees of maladministration, debt-loading and generally
inept management, leaving the fans to pick up the bill, which they always do – and for no stake in
the club. Successive attempts by the authorities to regain control have been weak, ill-conceived
and mis-targeted.

Hardly a professional club exists now without being owned by a Holding Company, though not
always for negative reasons – ours was created to facilitate the return of Turf Moor and
Gawthorpe to the club. No modern takeover seems to exist without this structural vehicle being
put into place, the flexibility it offers to owners, good and bad, is just too appealing.