Trouble with that test though, is it can only ever test for factual events in the past, not get an idea of how long they will maintain an interest. There needs to be a system in place where owners have to stump up the money in advance of committing to any contracts
Sounds like there'll be no points deduction for it and that they're going to try to punish him solely without punishing the club.
3-0 Port Vale win. Big fine for not controlling their fans to Reading. You can't let mob rule dictate, or you are nowhere. I'd also make them play their next home game behind closed doors. Any further breaches & that should be extended to 3, then 6, etc.
Interesting, but what due diligence did the football league do on this fella before allowing him to take control at Reading...I would suspect hardly any. And what due diligence are they likely to do on the next person who shows an interest in taking over, again I would suggest hardly any yet here they are calling on this guy to sell up. The EFL are partly responsible for this mess. It's about time the football league were taken to task because this "fit and proper persons" test is an absolute ******* shambles. The rules around "fit and proper" including all background checks clearly need re writing and properly enforcing because they aren't fit for purpose.
Said before, it can only be a matter of time before someone takes on the EFL over this fit and proper test. Imagine a group of Reading fans taking them to court over failure etc
If the owner is clearly trying to run the club into the ground, that's probably a fair approach. It's quite different to financially nefarious behaviour in order to gain an unfair advantage on the field (which admittedly Reading have also been guilty of in the recent past).
Even if they have been hit with various punishments before, the Efl should still take further points off them for this. Its hard for the fans and they deserve better but this sort of thing has got to be stopped and dealt with accordingly.
I really hope they do take the EFL to court because they have allowed this to happen. I can't stand Reading as a club but it would be interesting to see the EFL reaction if they got served with court proceedings. I think there's going to be more clubs in this exact same position over the next 3-4 years.
That's a very fair point. I have no idea what his personal financial situation is, or the legal situation fining him rather than a business entity he owns. It's a proper mess.
I'm torn here. On one hand it's horrible for fans to see this happen to their club. On the other hand, I didn't see many of them complaining when they were laying out ridiculous money to Andy Carroll, Junior Hoilett, Danny Drinkwater, Tom Ince and Lucas Joao less than 18 months ago.
Balls to em. It needs a ‘bigger club’ to go to the wall for football to get its house in order. As other people have said, these fans on the pitch weren’t protesting when they signing everybody under the sun on the never never. So I won’t be shedding any tears for them. Soz.
Wasn't the first time with Bury though. They had collection buckets out to save the club after overspending, got saved and not long after went down the same path again.
They were a Play off rival to us in the Val season, and they were almost relegation rivals to us the following season. I don't mind having a rivalry with teams like that on the pitch, but I've got no sympathy whatsoever for the way they are being run, off it.
6 yrs they have been in a financial mess. (Reading) and imo been., like QPR fortunate to have not crumbled altogether. Nearly £500k pw losses for QPR (Totally unsustainable) As of last march. I never want a club to go to the wall. For the fans sake. But those figures deserve nothing less. And Start again like Bury from rock bottom.