Ahead of the Game: Reading FC hero emerges as potential saviour
Former Reading chairman Roger Smee is considering making a last-ditch attempt to rescue the club from the ownership of Dai Yongge.
The 76-year-old property tycoon, who also played for Reading in the 1960s and 1970s, is already a hero among older fans for helping to block Robert Maxwell’s proposal to merge the club with Oxford United when he was on the board in the 1980s.
Smee went on to become Reading chairman after ousting Maxwell, before selling up to John Madejski in 1990 with the club in financial difficulties.
With Reading’s cash-flow problems approaching crisis point, City AM has learned that Smee has held initial talks about funding a rescue package.
Reading have been on the market for over a year but Yongge has been unable to sell, partly due to a number of outstanding loans the Chinese businessman has taken out which are secured against the club’s stadium.
A £25m sale to former Wycomber owner Rob Couhig was agreed last summer but collapsed in September and the club now face a struggle to meet their operating costs for the rest of the season.
A £5m loan from Couhig was repaid by Yongge in September, leaving Reading short of funds to pay the wages of players and staff.
The club announced that they had entered exclusive negotiations with another buyer in October but their identity remains unknown.
Mendy’s Man City payout set to be record-breaker
Benjamin Mendy will receive the biggest payout ever awarded by a UK Employment Tribunal after winning a claim against his former club Manchester City last week.
The France international was suspended without pay by City in September 2021 after he was charged with rape and sexual assault the previous month, and the club did not pay him anything from that point until he left at the end of his contract almost two years later.
Mendy brought a claim against City at Manchester Employment Tribunal for £11m in unpaid wages for the 22 months he remained at the club before being found not guilty at a second trial at Chester Crown Court a month after leaving City.
Following a two-day hearing last week Judge Joanne Dunlop ruled that City were entitled to withhold Mendy’s salary for the periods he was in custody, which totalled five months, but not for the rest of the time as he was available to train and play.
The precise level of the financial settlement will be determined by negotiation between Mendy’s legal team and City, but the player believes he is entitled to 17 months’ wages, which would total over £8.5m.
The current record payout at an Employment Tribunal was given to doctor Eva Michalak, a consultant physician who was awarded £4.5m in compensation in 2011 after winning a claim based on unfair dismissal, and sex and race discrimination against the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Mendy expects to receive up to double that amount, with the timescale for payment also to be determined by negotiation between the player and the club. If they fail to agree a deal the matter will go to arbitration.
Badenoch kicks Tory support for football regulator into touch
The Conservatives are expected to withdraw their previous support for the independent football regulator under the new leadership of Kemi Badenoch.
The first Football Governance Bill to establish the Regulator was introduced by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government in March, but Badenoch has made it clear she is opposed to such levels of government intervention in private businesses.
Labour introduced a toughened-up version of the bill last month, giving the regulator increased powers to determine the level of parachute payments paid to clubs relegated to the Championship.
The second reading of the bill is due to take place in the House of Lords today, with Conservative peers primed to back the Premier League in raising objections.
Allardice to stay on for full term at ICC
ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice is expected to see out the final two years of his term in charge of cricket’s world governing body following a recent period of turmoil at the organisation.
The ICC’s head of events, Chris Tetley, and the general manager of marketing and communications, Claire Furlong, both stood down following last summer’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies, while the head of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit, Alex Marshall, is leaving at the end of the month.
Allardice’s position is also under scrutiny with Jay Shah, son of India’s home minister Amit Shah and currently honorary secretary of his country’s cricket board, set to take over as chair of the ICC next month.
The Australian former first-class cricketer has two years remaining on the five-year contract he signed when replacing Manu Sawhney in 2021 however, and is expected to continue in the role.
In addition to combatting the growing threat that franchise leagues pose to international cricket, Allardice’s main challenge over the remainder of his term will be to renegotiate the ICC’s Indian TV deal.
That contract expires in 2027, with current rights-holder Disney Star unwilling to match the £2.26bn it agreed to pay for exclusive coverage of ICC events during the current four-year cycle.