Concerns at ‘takeover’ for Reading by man with failed bids for Sunderland and Coventry

There are huge concerns at a reported ‘takeover’ for Reading by a man with failed bids for the likes of Sunderland and Coventry.

It was claimed that William Storey is seeking the green light for a £50m takeover of crisis club Reading’… after the British businessman who once sponsored Haas F1 team previously struggled to buy the two other EFL clubs.

Reading have since said in a statement: “Reading Football Club would like to clarify that the process of the sale of the club is ongoing and, contrary to reports, there is currently no agreement in place with any party.

“Several parties have approached the club in recent weeks with declarations of interest in purchasing the club. All approaches are being assessed on their own merits to find the most suitable buyer to ensure a healthy future of the club and, at this stage, no single individual or entity has exclusivity in this process.

“We thank our supporters for their continued support, patience and understanding. As ever we will endeavour to keep our fans as informed as possible, and further updates will be provided as and when it is appropriate to do so.”

Ji-Min Lee tweeted:
What The Telegraph have reported:
– Dai “broadly agreed” to a £50M full sale
– Deal includes stadium & B’wood
– Has pledged to clear club debt, privately invest in players post-embargo
– Hopes to complete process in 6 weeks
– Still has to pass EFL fit and proper test

“The article mentions Storey sourcing funding from “wealthy backers”. You wonder whether he’s gathered enough capital to satisfy the owners/directors test.

“Sounds like this is in the hands of the EFL now. They say they’ve tightened their checks up, which gives me confidence. Then again, they say they’ve cracked down on takeover NDAs and look where we are now.”

Kieran Maguire joined Matterface and Crook on talkSPORT to speak about the situation.

Matterface: Let’s speak to Kieran Maguire who’s a football finance expert thank you for coming on the programme, Reading and reportedly on the verge of being bought by British businessman William Store in a £50 million deal. I’m reading about this this morning the first thing I want to do is try and find out how much money he’s got apparently nobody knows the next thing I want to do is find out what he done before and it did to the raise a few eyebrows is that right to be a little bit concerned what do you think I think that’s a very fair assessment?

Maguire: If we take a look at William Storey’s history in terms of what we can find in the public domain he’s been associated with a large number of companies many of those have been wound up very few of them have actually published accounts see he was briefly involved in a sponsorship deal with the the half Formula 1 team and that was terminated early um the reasons were never made clear since then he has been linked with takeovers I think at Sunderland, Sunderland fans did some background checks which didn’t necessarily reflect well on him, the same at Coventry and now Reading. Now I think there’s two big issues a does he have £50 million certainly there’s there’s nothing that would suggest that is the case, I think he’s his most notable company went into liquidation and has huge creditors huge unpaid sums so there’s that, and why pay £50 million for Reading because it would certainly be a record for a League One club and it’s difficult to justify that price Sunderland went for around about 30 and no disrespect to to Sunderland and Reading but Sunderland’s a far bigger club it’s got a bigger fan base. It gets higher attendances and so on, so trying to make sense of these numbers is quite a challenge and he’s I think he’s best described as a character Mr Storey as well with some of the connections he has and his history as a company owner.

Crook: There are massive red flags here aren’t there and I think there is a possibility the reason that those sponsorship deals in F1 were terminated was because he actually didn’t pay the money but he promised in terms of Redding do we know who owns what there because obviously Dai Yongge is been a very unpopular owner that been big protest against him if he is paying £50 million would that be for a 100% stake in the football club? Would he be buying all of the stadium all of the training ground? Or is there a danger that maybe some of those assets have already been carved off to other companies

Maguire: Well you’re absolutely right at Alex what happens a couple of years ago in order to allow Reading to comply with Financial fair play where they in significant danger of having a breach, Dai Yongge sold the stadium to another one of his companies so one can only presume that William Storey has offered £50 million for everything all of the property assets now as far as the stadium is concerned I think it was last week it was reclassified as an asset of community value and what that means is it it’s more difficult for somebody to come in, you know Reading is a very desirable place in the country from the employment point of view from a a retail or industrial perspective given you know it’s got an articular population it’s close to London it’s close to Heathrow and, so I think the theory is yeah could it be used for something else so this asset of community value gives a layer of protection because you’ve effectively got to give six months notice that you’re going to sell the stadium and it would allow uh the fans to to put in alternate offer um but even so the figures being quoted seem very high, you you look at other clubs which have been sold at at that stages Wigan went for around about £20 million and they’ve been bouncing up and down between the Championship and and League One and again they got a relatively new ground so the numbers seem fancy for I think it’s the politest way I could describe them as…

Matterface: It’s really interesting to read some of his tweets over the course of the last 48 hours, he sort of clearly laying the groundwork for taking over without announcing that he’s taking over. John Madejski is a Reading legend he did a fantastic job and showed enormous commitment to the club and the town over an extended period, ‘I hope he supports the next owner and it is important that the huge of efforts and financial contribution of Die Yongge are recognised by all’, he retweets loads of things from Reading FC Supporters Services, he’s retweeted the some of the scorelines from recently when Reading played Swindon in the trophy the other day, they won 5-0, and he’s retweeted that and sort of clearly making a sort of play to be seen as someone who’s associated with running.

Crook: That sets alarm bells in itself doesn’t it because in my experience caring people who want to buy football clubs don’t normally do it in the public domain they just go and buy football clubs I mean this Max a little bit of Michael Knights and juggling the ball

Matterface: He also had a bit of Twitter spat with someone else we know didn’t he Kieran?

Maguire: Yes uh I think when he was initially linked with the club, some Reading fans contacted me and said would he in fact pass the owners and directors test which my response was I think there’s two hopes, yeah a slim nun and slims out of town and he took exceptions of that and he said that I was clueless and I don’t know what I’m talking about which of course he’s perfectly entitled to his opinion so yeah we’ve had words I did therefore point out his involvement with this company called Lightning Volt which had £60 million worth of debts when it went bust, so yeah I don’t think we could be sending each other Christmas cards this this year

Matterface: Kieran thank you very much I mean the good news is that’s ironically really Kieran’s book unfoot and unfit and Improper Persons an Idiot’s Guide to owning a Football Club is released in all good bookstores today maybe we should uh order a copy for William Storey maybe you could sign him one and we could send it to him Kieran ha ha thank you thank you very much ha

PROTEST GROUP SAY

Reading FC fans respond to reports of £50m bid for club.

“Sell Before We Dal”, a pressure group set up to demand a change of ownership at Reading FC, has responded to reports that William Storey has had a £50m bid accepted to buy the club.

Spokesperson Nick Houlton said: “When we set up Sell Before We Dal, we didn’t want to be just another protest group. We wanted to make fan voices heard and fight for a solution to football’s ownership problem.

“To say we have our reservations about William Storey is an understatement. He has zero experience in football, his foray into F I ended acrimoniously, and his previous bids, including this one, have been characterised as attention seeking.

“His bid also lacks transparency. The funding is not entirely out of his own pocket and his communication with fans has been a concerning mixture of antagonistic and publicly cryptic.

“So it’s over to the EFL. Thanks to the actions of Reading supporters, as well as other fan groups, the EFL’s fit and proper owners test will face more scrutiny than ever before.

“Politicians are watching, the national media are watching, football is watching. We cannot rebound from one bad owner to another. We cannot go from the frying pan and into the fire. We cannot be let down again.”

You can read through a great insightful thread by @uglygame about William Storey’s business history by clicking HERE.

Twitter users reacted amid concerns at a ‘agreed takeover’ for Reading by a man with failed bids for Sunderland and Coventry…

@Blues1871: I see this take over bid as nothing more than another Dai tactic to stall administration. Along with the never ending Kia saga, he’s dealing with someone else with questionable motives and business dealings. Sadly I feel that administration can’t come soon enough.

@WhitmarshSteve: As a Pompey fan I feel your pain maybe the only way to cleanse this situation is administration and a fresh start even if that results in relegation all the time it passes from one let down ownership to another it’s just kicking the can down the road.. Good Luck 💙

@damonpearce: @EFL_Comms @EFL Please please take note.

@pieatnight_WAFC: Fight the good fight lads and lasses, but don’t get your hopes up if you’re relying on the EFL and their ‘fit and proper persons’ “test”.

@LukerDavid1970: It makes me feel physically ill that I find myself agreeing 100% with this statement. Whilst they represent a tiny minority, the words are spot on and @EFL will now have to act properly for once if this story is indeed true #readingfc

@pdeboiserie: Good to see fan groups talk up about potential ownership by William Storey. Will likely be an even bigger disaster than current owner. If you don’t know who he is just check out his utter failure of F1 team ownership.

@Eleanor18Flood: @EFL Please make sure you do a decent Fit and Proper assessment this time eh?!!! #footballiswatching

@jamespaddy94: @EFL we are watching you closely. Do not fail us again!!

@ronniemac93: Choosing between Dai and @richenergyceo to run @ReadingFC is like choosing which bloke shags your missus. 🤢 #readingfc

@TnsCov: If he passes the fit and proper test something is seriously wrong 😂 have reading fans not suffered enough

@TED247: Have we not been through enough

@ftblalfie5: Unlucky Reading, I hope you have better times soon

@pauljacques83: To any @ReadingFC fans, I’m sorry to hear this