Dai Yongge is given more time to sell Reading

By Chris Dunlavy

Reading owner Dai Yongge has been granted an extended deadline to sell the troubled League One club.

The Chinese businessman has been disqualified under the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test and was initially given until today to sell up – or face the prospect of Reading being banned from playing matches.

However, talks over a sale to US investor Robert Platek have hit an impasse whilst Yongge negotiates with Rob Couhig, who is suing the Reading owner for “loss of opportunity” following the collapse of his own takeover bid last summer.

Couhig, the former owner of Wycombe Wanderers, has a mortgage on the club’s stadium and training ground, which Yongge says must be lifted for a sale to progress.

Hope

Earlier this week, Couhig rejected an offer from Reading to place some of the proceeds of the sale to Platek in a frozen escrow account pending the result of his High Court claim against Yongge, which is due to be heard in July.

“I told my lawyers to respond with: ‘Come back when it’s real,’” said Couhig, who has not yet given up hope of buying the club himself.

“I have very little faith in them, frankly.

“There’s nothing to talk about until they come to me with a binding agreement.

“I want to see a legally binding document that’s signed by both seller and buyer.

“That’s when we’ll have an agreement.”

Deadline

With no immediate prospect of a resolution, the EFL have now extended the deadline for a sale to Tuesday, April 22.

In a statement, the EFL said: “While Mr Yongge is yet to divest his interests, as is required following his disqualification, discussions for him to do so remain active and ongoing.

“The board recognised that these matters are further complicated by the structure of assets held across different companies, and various competing security interests, and therefore deemed it appropriate to allow more time for them to be resolved.”

The Shrews search for new owners continues

Elsewhere in League One, Shrewsbury Town owner Roland Wycherley says the search for new buyers will resume after the collapse of an American takeover.

The long-serving 83-year-old chairman revealed on Tuesday that an exclusivity agreement ended the previous day without a completed sale of the League One basement side.

In a statement, he said: “Both the board and I feel deeply let down by how events have unfolded over the past few months.

“As with any sale, completion depends on the buyer’s willingness to complete.

“Unfortunately for STFC, we understand our prospective owners remain embroiled in a lengthy and complex legal dispute unrelated to football.

“As a result, we are no longer in an exclusivity period.

“I want to reassure supporters that the search for new investors has already resumed today, with fresh expressions of interest received as early as this morning.”