Reading (A) match thread - Jan 13th

[Dr Delgado]

The game at Reading and the unfolding events with the pitch invasion really highlights how much bigger football is than just 11 v 11. In some small way Port Vale, our precious club, have played their part in the battle to save someone else’s precious club. In years to come people will be reminiscing about the Reading game that never was, probably more than if Nathan Smith had scored a 30 yarder that day. I know some of our fans have forked out loads of money and were looking forward to the match and I really hope that the appropriate compensation comes their way.

If the Reading fan’s protests fell short of a pitch invasion then would it have made the national news.? Probably not. From a desperate Reading fan’s point of view I would suggest that it is a case of desperate times being met with desperate measures. 
If I believed that getting a game abandoned at Vale Park would in some way help save our club the I’d be on there in a shot, criminal offence or not, it’s not like someone’s shot the King or owt.

I’m proud of our fans for supporting the Reading fans last Saturday and at the same time I understand those Vale fans that rightfully felt short changed.

I wish Reading fans all the best in their fight for their club, we should all know how much it means.

[valefan16]

I think it needs to be replayed as much as being given 3 points and having a 10 point buffer on the drop zone would be nice and more relaxing!

If we were given the 3 points and say stayed up by a point or two imagine the up roar and potential legal challenges, would create a massive headache for the EFL.

They should sort it though so Vale get costs covered for the replay, free coaches and tickets still valid for all fans with tickets and some refund for any who went who can't make the re-arranged fixture.

In terms of punishment for Reading thats for the EFL to decide and not really our concern but hopefully one that accelerates them becoming free of their owner, as we've been there it may even take administration and a few years to recover from but at least the club survives in that case and can work back up in time.

[Howjy04]

I don’t think any more pitch invasions would,now,be of any value.Starve ‘im Out may.He lost no money on Saturday ,In fact if the game is replayed.....

[Trumpingtonvale]

3 hours ago, Wozza4England said:

The game needs to be replayed to be fair to all teams in league 1.

The owner needs to be heavily fined for not ensuring the fixture is played as scheduled.

Reading should receive a 20 points reduction to virtually guarantee relegation. This hits the owner as it will significantly reduce the value of the club and it sends a clear message to all fans of the consequences of forcing an abandonment.

All in my most humble opinion of course.

Not sure if people mean the same thing when referring to a replay.  For me full replay with scores reset to 0-0 still gives the incentive for fans to initially force an abandonment to potentially change an outcome in favour of their club. Wouldn’t it be fairer, and disincentivise pitch invasions etc,  to pick up the fixture where it left off with the same score, same time on the clock and the same players on the pitch (and subs bench) as when the game stopped? The 2 teams could still be given the option to agree to waive the continuation and accept the scoreline and result at the time of abandonment but seeing as goal difference is as good as a point at the end of season reckoning I doubt few would take this option,  weighing it up against how long there was left to play in the game etc.  Off-field sanctions could still be applied separately and any financial compensation for clubs and fans would still need to be agreed on case by case basis.

‘Continuation’ may be logistically more difficult but would seem to me be the fairest ‘replay’ for the teams involved and potential impact on the rest of the league.

[worldsendvalefan]

1 minute ago, Trumpingtonvale said:

Not sure if people mean the same thing when referring to a replay.  For me full replay with scores reset to 0-0 still gives the incentive for fans to initially force an abandonment to potentially change an outcome in favour of their club. Wouldn’t it be fairer, and disincentivise pitch invasions etc,  to pick up the fixture where it left off with the same score, same time on the clock and the same players on the pitch (and subs bench) as when the game stopped? The 2 teams could still be given the option to agree to waive the continuation and accept the scoreline and result at the time of abandonment but seeing as goal difference is as good as a point at the end of season reckoning I doubt few would take this option,  weighing it up against how long there was left to play in the game etc.  Off-field sanctions could still be applied separately and any financial compensation for clubs and fans would still need to be agreed on case by case basis.

‘Continuation’ may be logistically more difficult but would seem to me be the fairest ‘replay’ for the teams involved and potential impact on the rest of the league.

It would be difficult to keep the same teams as a number of the players involved in Saturday's match may well have moved on especially in Reading's case. In fairness to all other teams, the match should be replayed. And in fairness to fans who want to travel down to the match, who attended on Saturday they should get free tickets for the game. Also those fans will want to see a full 90 minutes of football. As the match was only 16 minutes in and the score was 0 - 0 that seems to be the sensible option.

If the game was in it's 85th minute and Vale were leading 1 - 0 then that would be a different situation. Vale could be unfairly disadvantaged by a full 90 minutes. But that's not the case, so best keep things simple.

[Hoppers]

To me a general points deduction and a replay would be the correct way. 

[Trumpingtonvale]

Just now, worldsendvalefan said:

It would be difficult to keep the same teams as a number of the players involved in Saturday's match may well have moved on especially in Reading's case. In fairness to all other teams, the match should be replayed. And in fairness to fans who want to travel down to the match, who attended on Saturday they should get free tickets for the game. Also those fans will want to see a full 90 minutes of football. As the match was only 16 minutes in and the score was 0 - 0 that seems to be the sensible option.

If the game was in its 85th minute and Vale were leading 1 - 0 then that would be a different situation. Vale could be unfairly disadvantaged by a full 90 minutes. But that's not the case, so best keep things simple.

Logistically difficult as I said - completing the fixture behind closed doors on the same day (as Oldham did) or the day after as Adam Yates on the radio and others on here have suggested could be an option to have more chance of the same personnel being available. Ultimately the EFL have regs that are so vague they’re open to potential abuse and obviously they have given little thought to scenarios that have actually happened previously - their position on abandonment is also different with that of the FA to add more confusion to clubs’ and fans’ expectations and understanding of what happens next. It’s no wonder we have nearly 50 pages of posts for a game that only lasted 16 minutes.

[Howjy04]

Rick Parry meeting with Reading fans today.He says there is no point in fining Dai as he wouldn’t pay.The EFL can’t relieve Dai of the club irrespective,he’s the owner of the Ltd company.They don’t have the powers to force a sale.

[Fosse69]

36 minutes ago, Howjy04 said:

Rick Parry meeting with Reading fans today.He says there is no point in fining Dai as he wouldn’t pay.The EFL can’t relieve Dai of the club irrespective,he’s the owner of the Ltd company.They don’t have the powers to force a sale.

So all they can do really is take points away from the club to prevent them having an unfair advantage over their competitors. Which needs to be done in the current season to avoid an other club being relegated if the punishment is delayed until the following  season.

[Jacko51]

Could the League remove the golden share and make it difficult for the club to operate in the league then hand the golden share back to the new owners?  Probably talking rubbish. 

[Rampant Zebra]

16 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

Could the League remove the golden share and make it difficult for the club to operate in the league then hand the golden share back to the new owners?  Probably talking rubbish. 

Without the golden share they wouldn't be allowed to participate in league games. 

[Fosse69]

14 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

Could the League remove the golden share and make it difficult for the club to operate in the league then hand the golden share back to the new owners?  Probably talking rubbish. 

Presumably that happened to Bury? 

[Jacko51]

1 hour ago, Howjy04 said:

Rick Parry meeting with Reading fans today.He says there is no point in fining Dai as he wouldn’t pay.The EFL can’t relieve Dai of the club irrespective,he’s the owner of the Ltd company.They don’t have the powers to force a sale.

When is he meeting?  He is in Parliament this morning responding to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. 

[A Reading Fan]

I have been a Reading fan since the late 1950's, although I only listen to to the commentary on the local radio these days. so can I put my head above the parapet to try to  explain why the fans frustration reached a climax at the weekend.

We were once a well run club, when John Madejski was chairman, who achieved his ambition to get us to the Premier League. Having got us there twice, he could no longer afford to run the club. He sold the club to a Russian who failed to pay the second instalment so the the club reverted to John. He then sold the club to a group of Thais., who after a couple of years got planning permission to develop the land surrounding the Stadium to themselves and promptly sold that land to themselves. That development has now been started on(just in time to prevent the permission to run out). They then said we can't afford to run football club and sold Reading FC to Dai Yongge just as we made to a Championship Play Off Final. We lost. Dai then threw money at the club to try to gain promotion, The only person he took advise from was a super agent, who I believe was also involved with Everton-enough said?- This agent advised Dai to spend millions on useless players, who were of course clients of Kia Joorabchian mostly. Reading fans knew these players were useless and made their feelings known on our fans forums, etc. One thing I will thank Dai for is our Training Ground he  paid for.  When things got a bit tight on the FFP front he sold the ground to himself, so the club has to pay him a million quid a year rent.  It also seems that there is a Legal Charge on the training ground, so when (if) the club is sold we won't have a ground or training ground to call our own. Dai seem seems to have little  interest in selling the club as negions always break down at the last minute and the would be buyers pulling out.

Reading all the comments on this forum, I see several misconceptions, I would like to clear up. The club has been under a transfer embargo so long, and is due to carry on on for another couple of years, all thanks to this Chinese idiot, the club does not have any player at the moment who we have paid a transfer fee for as we only allowed to sign free transfer or unattached players. Also we limited by the EFL how much we can pay our players within a certain maximum budget, so Carroll and the other players mention on here will be/were not on high wages. Most of our payers have come trough our academy, including Smith, who returned here at the beginning of the season. this week news broke (perhaps the last straw) that two players have had offers accepted by the CEO (a Chinese mate of Dais)  above the heads of the manager and the Head of Football Operations, also rumours of several other other players also likely to be sold very soon. Our fear is that he is selling off the assets of the club and the Liquidating the club, which he has done to two other clubs, whilst he has owned Reading, not before he owned reading as seems to be another misconception. 

If the police had tried to remove the protesters from the pitch when there was "only" a few dozen, it seem to me that for each one removed another two, or more, would have replaced them from the stands. The stewards and all the staff are as fed up with Dai as we are but they have the added fear of losing their jobs in the near future, Would you do everything to stop the protest and possibly get hurt doing so in that situation? 

I was against the invasion before it happened, but can now see that it  has generated so much publicity all across the media, which is far, far more than it would have been if they had left the pitch and the game carried on. I am only sorry that another club had to suffer the  consequences of our fans action, and hopefully the amount donated to you Statue Fund will be some little compensation. If you are still here I wish you all the very best for the rest of the season

.A Reading Fan

 

[ollyandpatch]

Just spotted what a Reading fan has posted online...😆