Reading FC legend Dave Kitson has spoken about the vital importance for change in governance in football ownership.
Reading have been one of several clubs who have felt the impact of financial mismanagement, which has seen them deducted points in three consecutive seasons having dropped to the third tier of English football having been a Premier League club a little over a decade ago.
Speaking to Fair Game UK, Kitson said: “At the moment, we’re the club in the spotlight, but we’re just one in a long line of clubs of which the manifestation is bad decisions being made.
“People taking advantage of football clubs and whole communities, whole towns, whole cities and leading us back 10 years, 20 years in some cases, which has happened to Reading.”
With talks of an independent football regulator having been ongoing for some time, there has been a cross-party commitment from the conservatives, labour and the liberal democrats to reform football governance as they each published their manifestos.
Kitson continued: “Reading won’t be the last unless something is done about it.
“Everyone thinks it won’t happen to them. I never could have dreamed Reading would be in that situation when we left that club in a really healthy position.
“To see it dismantled in front of your eyes and being powerless to do anything about it is heartbreaking.”
