Finance expert reveals hope for Reading FC amid takeover turmoil | OneFootball

Finance expert reveals hope for Reading FC

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has provided an update which could give Reading fans hope despite the club's ongoing financial turmoil.

The Royals are still suffering from owner Dai Yongge's mismanagement, which has seen the Berkshire outfit handed several point deductions, including a six-point penalty which caused the club's relegation from the Championship to League One in 2023.

Maguire provides Royals update

The finance expert wrote on X: "A glimmer of hope for Reading fans.

"Still no sign of overdue accounts (Boo!) but club has settled mortgage loan with Barclays that was signed in 2014.

"This *might* mean tidying up paperwork with a view to making progress on the club sale... or it might not."

The Royals faithful will, of course, hope for the latter, as the club are becoming more and more desperate by the day as the Yongge saga limps on for now.

For as long as Reading's dire financial situation continues, supporters will fear the worst for their side after Steve Dale's failed ownership of Bury FC saw the Greater Manchester team expelled from the EFL back in the summer of 2019, and Macclesfield Town followed due to financial hardships just a year later.

The effects of Yongge's wrong doings are already being felt at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, as the Royals' women's team were forced to withdraw from the Championship, and have consequently applied for a spot in the fifth tier of the women's game.

Last season, Ruben Selles' men finished 17th in the League One table, a fate which would usually be deemed as a failure for a side who was freshly relegated from the Championship.

But amid the club's off-field issues, and yet another six-point deduction, the Royals did a stellar job to comfortably avoid relegation by a margin of nine points.

In an ideal world, the Berkshire side would like to put last campaign's difficulties behind them, and push on towards the play-off positions having endured a 10-year spell in the second tier prior to the relegation of 2023.

However, for as long as Yongge's tenure as owner lasts, the Royals will simply not be able to complete the necessary transfers which would enable them to enjoy a more fruitful 2024/25 season.

Royals await takeover news

The Reading Chronicle reported at the end of June that the Royals remained in takeover talks with interested parties, including former Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig.

But this update is hardly going to enthuse fans, as it has now been 10 months since Yongge first agreed to put the club up for sale back in September.

There hasn't been any real cause for optimism at the Select Car Leasing Stadium for a while now, but if the club's recent loan payment to Barclays, as revealed by Maguire, is indeed progress towards a sale of the club, then some Royals supporters may be feeling some cautious optimism during desperately turbulent times.