By Cllr Jason Brock
I’m far from the only person in the town who is anxiously looking at the concerning turn of events at Reading Football Club.
The club has been charged with multiple breaches of English Football League (EFL) regulations which relate to failing to meet their obligations. Alongside this is a winding-up petition served by HMRC.
It all follows relegation for the men’s team – in itself at least partly due the six points deducted as a result of the club breaching profit and sustainability rules – and compounds the relegation of the Women’s team from the Super League. Dark days indeed.
Putting on-pitch disappointment to one side for a minute – although the successful running of the business side of a football club is of course inexorably linked to sporting success, or otherwise – sadly the club’s biggest battle will be off the pitch in the months and years to come.
As I write this, the risk of the Royals going into administration seems very real, although the club had until last Thursday ( June 29) to respond to the EFL charges
Football has, of course, changed immeasurably in recent years. This is most obvious and acute at Premier League level with billionaire owners taking control, but it is also very noticeable further down the pyramid’s pecking order. In recent years we have seen some of football’s historic clubs go bust or teeter on the edge, including Bury FC, who, in 2019, were expelled from the Football League after a 125-year stay.
Reading FC is one the oldest English football teams south of the Trent, established in 1871.
The club is a point of pride for our town, with an active and loyal supporter community. We know that, on paper at least, our football clubs are privately owned. In reality, they belong to local communities. It’s the fans who support them through thick and thin and identify with their hometown team – fans are the life of a club.
That’s certainly the case in Reading, where generation after generation of residents have supported their local club through good times and, more recently, bad. There is real fear among fans at the possibility of losing that – I have been contacted by concerned fans in recent weeks.
What I find really frustrating is that despite the sad demise of historic, community clubs across the country over recent years, it is evident that lessons have not been learned by professional football or, indeed, by Government.
It is not as if they have had a shortage of case studies and warnings.
In February this year, the Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Powell MP, stated that football reform has support across Parliament and across the country, and called upon the Government to urgently bring forward legislation or take responsibility for any clubs that go under.
I fully endorse the Shadow Secretary of State’s view.
The prospect of Reading FC entering administration, or of an ‘asset strip’ of the club by its current owners, is as disturbing as it should be avoidable.
It would have a huge negative impact on our town and on our community and the very prospect highlights the need for a reform to the ownership structures of clubs and the regulation of them. In my view, it’s high time that fans are given a meaningful stake in the running of any club – hardly a revolutionary idea given that we can find examples across Europe.
Last week I wrote to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, alongside my colleague Cllr Barnett-Ward, outlining our concerns.
I await the Secretary of State’s reply.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
