Suspended 3 point deduction imposed by EFL for pitch invasion which caused match to be abandoned. https://www.skysports.com/football/...ion-during-league-one-match-against-port-vale
Essentially, they're punishing the fans there, who are the ones trying to bring about change whilst the EFL/FA idly watch on. They're trying to prevent further protests, rather than deal with the issue. I guess the fans could say, **** it, do it again, and essentially condemn themselves to relegation, but that then further plights the club.
True, but you can't have fans up and down the Country seeing the Reading fans cause a match to be abandoned and there be no punitive action. The game would end up like the wild west, and it'd become a commplace event (fans stopping the match). And who's to say what a valid reason for doing that would be? Dislike the owners, stop the match....dislike the manager's tactics? Stop the match. Team losing 3-0 after half an hour? Stop the match to save any further GD haemorraging. I understand their frustration and angst, but causing a match to be abandoned isn't the right way to go about it.
But nobody is stopping a game because their side is losing though. If that was the case then I presume they'd get a more severe punishment. That's a moot point. I don't think the Reading fans doing this are taking the decision to do so lightly. I've no love for Reading football club, and I understand there will be an element who are protesting now who were waxing lyrical when they were briefly top of the championship last season (or the year before, I can't remember which), but they have a right to protest. Their football club is being destroyed, and the EFL have not only enabled it, but they're allowing it to happen. Are we suggesting they should just accept it for what it is? I was against the protests our fans were staging a few years ago, because it appeared to be born out of nothing more than frustration at results going the wrong way. The other board members managed to resolve the situation as soon as they possibly could. It doesn't look like Reading are going to have that option, so the only people left who can try and force change, is the fans.
I think the punishment is, in the minds of the EFL at least, for not having resources in place to control the crowd. People could be forgiven for thinking the EFL regard fans as an embarrassing encumbrance, trouble is in this kind of situation the "oiks" are holding mirror to EFL incompetence and that simply won't do. They can't face the facts that football's finances are shot to pieces and its happened on their watch.