On Saturday 30th September, my beloved Reading faced Burton Albion at the Select Car Leasing Stadium (formerly the Madejski Stadium) in front of a crowd of just 13,554. With fans dressed in black to mourn the death of the football club that was so sensibly run for so many years, the 16th minute protest occurring once again, in the hope of bringing attention to the demise of one of England's oldest football clubs.
Having been unable to buy Hull City in 2016 because he was expected to fail the Premier Leagues "Fit and Proper" owner tests, the EFL had no issues with Dai Yongge buying Reading FC less than 12 months later. At the time, he was one of a handful of Chinese owners encouraged to buy English football clubs with the backing of the Chinese government.
The Chinese government soon reversing their support, after seeing too much money leaking out to foreign entities.
Who Is Dai Yongge?
Dai Yongge had experience owning football clubs before Reading.
In 2007, he acquired Chinese club Shaanxi Baorong Chanba, successfully leading them into oblivion and non-existence by 2021.
He's also had experience of club ownership in Belgium having bought KSV Roselare in 2016, shortly before trying to buy Hull City. He repeated his success in China, with Roselare declared bankrupt and ceasing to exist in 2019.
So is Dai Yongge a fraudster?
Apparently not. In 2016, Forbes estimated his worth to be around $931m (Source).
So is he just incompetent?
Undoubtedly.
Having been late to pay the players on multiple occasions and also failing to pay HMRC in full and on time, Reading have suffered 16 points deductions since his ownership began. 6 points of which occurred in last season's campaign, resulting in Reading getting relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time in over 20 years - missing out on survival... by exactly 6 points.
2023/24
Despite the relegation and an increase in ticket prices (!!!!!!) ... Over the summer Reading fans could finally breathe a sigh of relief - the club had done enough to have the transfer embargo lifted and we could finally make some new signings... 2 weeks later and another unpaid tax bill saw the embargo imposed again... along with another 3 points deduction. Subsequently failing to pay the players on time, to incur yet another 1 point deduction, once again putting us in the relegation zone as a result of non-football related matters.
We've still not paid HMRC (and are expecting another punishment to be imposed upon the club) and whether it's this time, the next time or the time after, HMRC will eventually succeed with one of their Winding up orders and a club that celebrated its 150th anniversary a couple of years ago will undoubtedly be his greatest failure yet.
Dai Yongge will have achieved his hat-trick of destroying football clubs. And it will be my club, that I've followed my entire life to be his latest victim. Thank you EFL.
