Reading FC icon on Dai Yongge, fan action and the future

When sitting down for an exclusive interview with the Reading Chronicle, iconic former Reading owner and chairman Sir John Madejski believes Dai Yongge’s decision to surround himself with ‘the wrong people’.

The 82-year-old Auto Trader founder graciously invited The Reading Chronicle into his lavish penthouse bedroom overlooking his ‘church,’ which he helped build back in 1998.

Nothing was off-limits after over an hour in his presence, but of course, there was only one item on our thoughts…Reading Football Club is an English football club.

“I’ve had absolutely nothing to do with the current owner,” Sir John said of the Chinese businessman who has been in charge since 2017. “The Thais managed to find Mr Dai and I’ve only met the man once, in passing. He’s clearly not interested in meeting me whatsoever, but that’s his prerogative. It’s a shame really, because I know I certainly could have helped him enormously and saved him hundreds of millions. I sold it in good faith. Of course, I am tremendously saddened to see where it is.”

‘Where it is’ is now unfortunately 44 league places lower than Yongge found it, with three straight seasons of points deductions, three years of transfer embargoes and another two to come.

Pushed to the very edge, bills have been regularly paid late and supporters have taken action this season- before, during and after matches.

“I am deeply upset for the staff because it is unfair the torturous that they are being treated. It’s a horrible place to be in because they’ve all got families and mortgages. When you don’t know if you’re going to be paid, it’s not a very nice feeling. People are leaving because they can’t take it anymore. My heart goes out to them because it’s miserable.”

Twice breaking the club’s transfer record and spending upwards of £150m on owning the football club, nobody can suggest that the billionaire hasn’t put his money where his mouth is at times.

So, where did it all go so wrong?

“He went wrong because he surrounded himself with the wrong people. He seemed to think that these international agents were the bees-knees, but what do they know about Reading or League One? Absolute diddly-squat I should imagine. They were happy to take his money and ‘advise him’- well I don’t think the advice has been very good. I also think that Mr Dai is so thinly spread, because no doubt he has so many other things going on in his world, how much time does he put into Reading Football Club? Not much I would estimate. If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Don’t treat us like this, it isn’t fair.

“Mr Dai has invested heavily, mostly in the training ground. The training ground is Premiership suitable, too advanced for League One. I think he has this perception of how much it is worth, but the people trying to buy it will not have the same view.

There are three elements: the football team, the stadium and the training ground. As I understand it, they’ve been put into different companies to get over the Football League regulations. He probably realises the value of them as a piece of land or development.”