How Low Can Reading FC Go ?


So what will the 2024-25 season hold for the long suffering fans of Reading FC ? Will it be welcoming the Holywood stars from Wrexham to the Madejski (sorry, The Select Car Leasing..), or will it involve a trip on the number 128 bus to away games ?

Well, there are three possible scenarios now: the orderly sale of the club to a 'fit and proper' owner; bankruptcy and administration, or liquidation. These are pretty sequential: one is likely to follow the other.

The problems around selling the club seem largely to do with issues off the pitch. Nigel Howe, who surely deserves the freedom of the town (or even a free parking space at The Oracle) after the shift he has put in at the club, seemed to indicate as much in a pragmatic statement at the end of January - 'no quick sale' was the gist.

Royal Elm Park was estimated as a half billion pound project in 2017 when planning permission was originally sought - probably a bit more now - and groundwork has just begun to ensure that the planning permission does not lapse.

The land is, ostensibly, owned by a subsidiary of Reading FC called RFC Prop Co Ltd and the intention is that they lease it to the developers, a Chinese state controlled company called Greenland Holdings Corp on a 250 year lease. (Does anyone see a trend here ?) A real estate expert we consulted guesstimates that the revenue from the ground rent would be about £5m a year.

Given the continued involvement of the previous Thai owners and Dai Yongge as well as the share scale of this project involving nearly 700 homes, an ice rink, hotel and conference centre, which dwarfs any value that can be placed on the soccer team, it's easy to see why this is becoming a protracted situation.

Meanwhile, on the field, staying up will be of value, but the financial differences between the first and second division are not that great, especially for a well supported side like Reading (an average £5m compared to £9m in revenue - a Championship side would expect £27m in average revenue - these are 21/22 figures).

However, falling out of the top tier totally would likely be a disaster, and although many clubs have bounced back, as 'Welcome to Wrexham' documented, it is generally regarded as one of the most difficult tasks in club football.

And this may well be the fate that befalls Reading should it go into administration with an automatic 12 point deduction which would most likely be applied the following season, hampering its hopes in the fourth tier.

The worst case scenario is if any Administrators decide that the liabilities of the club outstrip their assets. Unfortunately this situation is compounded by an EFL rule that states that football creditors take precedence. This leaves out HMRC who have taken an aggressive attitude to clubs defaulting in the past.

Other clubs have faced this fate and fought back - Newport FC, as Newport County FC, went into liquidation exactly thirty years ago, but last weekend faced Manchester United in the FA Cup. In a different league and under different rules, Rangers had to work their way up four leagues to get back to the top tier after going bankrupt.

When AFC Wimbledon was formed by supporters after the former club moved to Milton Keynes, they started in the 9th tier of English football and have subsequently moved their way up to League One.

So, if the worst comes to the worst, where could a phoenixed FC Reading, owned by its fans, restart ? 

Well, the good news is that supporters would probably only need a bus pass for Saturday afternoons to get to Hurst FC or Finchampstead FC for matches. The not so good news is that the games would be in the Thames Valley Premier League, at the eleventh tier of the game in England.