Why what’s currently going on with Reading should be agitating all of us
Photograph: TeeGeePix/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.
WRITING AND READING
There’s a reason you’re here, and it definitely isn’t the reliable hilarity of the planet’s favourite tea-timely email. Rather, what probably brought you to this debilitating wilderness of facetious smuggery is that you are an extremely poorly individual, jonesing for yet another hit to satisfy your congenital, preternatural and incurable footballaholism. Because regardless of race, class or nationality, sex, sexuality or gender, people love football, more than they love almost anything else – even in Reading. Which is why what’s currently going on with Reading should be agitating all of us.
On Saturday, during their League One match against Port Vale, the game was first halted for three minutes after fans threw tennis balls on to the pitch – yes, that sounds very Berkshire but it works – then abandoned after 16 minutes, when fans invaded the pitch and refused to leave. It’s fair to assume that the majority of them generally spend the week looking forward to the game and do not want to do this. Rather, like the Manchester United fans whose protests forced the abandonment of a game against Liverpool in May 2021 – and those of numerous other clubs – people acted out of desperate fury, sick of watching a major chunk of their identity and heritage be vandalised with the apparent consent of the authorities responsible for safeguarding it.
Which brings us to Dai Yongge, Reading’s “owner”. Like all the best lads, Yongge was gifted even more of his fortune by his sister, Dai Xiu Li, formerly one of the richest women in the world – the family own a bunch of shopping malls and he’s now in charge – which tells us plenty about where a football club ranks in his priorities. The Yongges first bought a Chinese club, Shaanxi Chanba, moving it first to Guizhou and then Beijing, after which it folded. So they tried to buy Hull and failed, then acquired 75% of Reading with neither the Football League nor the Department for Culture, Media and Sport finding anything amiss – yet again.
And, yet again, both bodies failed in their duty of care, Yongge’s litany of achievements testament to their remarkable ability to repeat the same callous error without fear of reprisal. Reading have been deducted points three seasons in a row and relegated from the Championship, failed to pay players, staff and taxes on time and in full, been placed under transfer embargo and served with a winding-up order. Or in other words, the EFL – failing to protect Reading from Yongge – are now obliviously punishing them for its behaviour. So what happens next? Well, most likely what almost always happens next. Eventually, Yongge will leave and go about his rich man’s life like nothing happened, the EFL will do the same thing again like nothing happened and the DCMS will let them, leaving the fans to rebuild. Which they will, because regardless of race, class or nationality, sex, sexuality or gender, people love football, more than they love almost anything else – even in Reading.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Daniel from 5pm GMT for hot Afcon MBM coverage of Cameroon 2-1 Guinea, while Yara El-Shaboury will be on deck for updates from the Fifa Best gongs, starting at around 7pm.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“They were on the list. Salman [Al-Faraj] told me he doesn’t want to play in the friendly games. I asked Sultan [Al-Ghannam] if he was happy to play and he told me he wasn’t happy. Players don’t decide if they play or not, I decide! Nawaf [Al-Aqidi] told me he’d come but the day after, in Riyadh, he said he didn’t want to come” – Roberto Mancini quickly realises why he is being paid the big bucks to manage Saudi Arabia as a number of fresh and funky squad members decide to abandon the Asian Cup unless they’re going to play.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
I noticed that at the end of Friday’s Football Daily (full email edition) you mentioned that letters prizes would be back again this week. So on the off-chance that nobody else would bother writing to you and given that there’s a good chance that I might forget come Monday, I thought that I’d just write in now to say what a wonderful, if curtailed, weekend of Premier League football that was. Despite the VAR decisions” – Elaine Shaw.
It’s not just those in the rarefied atmosphere of the Premier League who have to suffer this ongoing abomination around the rescheduling of matches for TV (Friday’s Football Daily). OK, we’re partly to blame for choosing to live where we do in the remoteness of deepest, darkest East Anglia, and support a team who (to put it mildly) haven’t got a clue what they are doing this season. But, thanks to the Premier League’s mid-season break and the need to fill a Friday night slot, Hull hosted Norwich on Friday night, with an 8pm kick-off to boot. While on said soap box, someone needs to sort out the wonderful fixture computer which always seems to give Norwich long-distance midweek trips to Middlesbrough/Newcastle/Cardiff/Wigan et al depending on which division we’re in. Those programmers have obviously never tried to travel from or to Norwich at a reasonable time on any day because, believe me, it can be incredibly difficult” – John Scent.
‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’ doesn’t quite capture how one-sided Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup final was. It was more like Vini, Vini, Vini” – Peter Oh.
Send your letters to [email protected]. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … John Scent, who lands a copy of The Africa Cup of Nations: The History of an Underappreciated Tournament, published by Pitch Publishing. Visit their football book store here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The Football Weekly podcast is here for you.
TROY OF THE (WINLESS) ROVERS
Troy Deeney is six games into his stint as Forest Green manager and still hasn’t tasted victory yet. Did he take the 2-0 home defeat by Harrogate well? Not really. Here are some choice quotes as he threw his players – particularly defender Fankaty Dabo – under the bus. “Dabo was poor and awful again and I have just told him that he will not be playing on Tuesday. He has not been good enough for eight or nine weeks, why do you think he was dropped at the start. I have just told him in front of everyone, six months ago that kid had a kick to go to the Premier League, now he would not get a game in the National League, so is that me or him?” Deeney has since apologised to Dabo for singling him out (well, an apology of sorts: “Listen, I still stand by what I said but I probably shouldn’t have let that out”), though no one at the New Lawn was safe from his verbal haymakers. “The amount of nonsense you have to deal with at this place, from players by the way, is embarrassing, I know exactly what I’m going to need to do. I was trying to be nice and cosy my way into it. But what is going to have to happen is the sledgehammers are going to have to come out and there are going to be a lot of people that won’t like it, but I do not really care.”
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Bolton supporter Ian Purslow, who suffered a suspected cardiac arrest during Saturday’s abandoned League One game with Cheltenham, has died. “The thoughts of everyone connected to Bolton Wanderers are with Iain’s family and loved ones at this incredibly sad time,” read a club statement.
Turkish authorities have released Antalyaspor’s Israeli player Sagiv Jehezkel from police custody and he will return to his home country after his arrest for displaying a “100 days” message on his wrist in reference to the time that hostages have been held by Hamas.
An angry supporter attempted to hit Ghana coach Chris Hughton after their shock 2-1 defeat to Cape Verde at the Africa Cup of Nations. “The fan approached the coach to express his disappointment at the outcome of the game and told the coach to improve or leave the job,” parped team media liaison Henry Asante. “It was a verbal confrontation. There was no physical contact. Later he was taken away by the security.”
South Korea are up and running at the Asian Cup, seeing off Bahrain 3-1.
Erik ten Hag has turned his masculinity up to the max, calling out Manchester United’s players after their 2-2 draw with Spurs for not being more macho on set-pieces. “We should be more man when we have to defend corners,” he roared, presumably before doing this.
Al-Ettifaq legend Jordan Henderson is in “serious talks” with Ajax over hot-footing it away from Saudi Arabia, according to manager John van ‘t Schip. “He still has some things to arrange,” he blabbed. “It could be a nice match. It’s no secret that we could really use that type of player.”
Tottenham are in the hat for the Women’s FA Cup fifth-round draw after battling from 2-0 down to beat Sheffield United 3-2 thanks to a dramatic Rosella Ayane winner in the 96th minute.
Swindon are on the hunt for a new manager after giving Michael Flynn the boot.
And Xavi is feeling rather sheepish after Barcelona were subjected to a 4-1 shellacking by Madrid in the Saudi Spanish Super Cup final. “I am disappointed and sad,” he sniffed. “We apologise to the fans, we didn’t compete. We had a lot of hope going into the final and we’ve produced our worst performance.”
ONE TO WATCH
10 January: “He’s not going anywhere right now. You can keep asking that question but I’m going to say right now he’s not going anywhere. He’s got a job to do and he can do it, and I believe that we’re going to give him the right assets and he can be successful” – Huddersfield owner Kevin Nagle gives his backing to Darren Moore with the Terriers hovering above the Championship trapdoor.
13 January: “NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!” – Nagle unloads on social media abomination TwiXer after a 1-1 home draw with Plymouth Argyle.
STILL WANT MORE?
Ten Talking points from the weekend’s Premier League action.
Jadon Sancho is back at Dortmund but even if he’s already helped fix a thing or two, there are longer-term issues to watch out for, warns Andy Brassell.
It looks like we’re reaching the business end of the José Mourinho era at Roma, explains Nicky Bandini.
Ligue 1 and the ongoing importance of Kylian Mbappé. By Luke Entwistle.
There are more questions than answers with Timo Werner, croons Jonathan Wilson, who’s also been typing about Ivan Toney and the game not learning from its gambling ties, plus the magic of Kevin De Bruyne.
A man from the future: Franz Beckenbauer was a role model for a generation, writes our World Cup-winning colleague Phillip Lahm.
Rumour Mill! Rumour Mill! Rumour Mill!
And the cult of Ange lives on in north London but is he really all that different? Ewan Murray dons his tin hat and runs for the hills.
MEMORY LANE
There are fab fours and then there’s this one. Raúl, Santiago Muñez (AKA Kuno Becker), David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane are pictured on the set of Goal! in March 2005. “The word ‘own’ is missing from the title of this cameo-packed football film,” read Peter Bradshaw’s review.