An Open Letter To All Football Fans

What’s happened here could happen at your club too, as this Reading fan writes.

Imagine finishing work on a Friday night and the club you’ve supported all your life no longer exists. Imagine explaining to your kids that the club that they’ve been part of all their life is no longer there. Imagine not being able to have that sense of belonging that you’re all so used to.

The sad reality is that Reading fans believe that might actually happen. We are scared and we don’t know what will happen next.

Today, MP for Earley and Woodley Yuan Yang launched a petition to launch an inquiry into the ownership crisis at Reading FC, and we need your help.

Put any rivalries aside that you may have for a moment: this petition isn’t about saving Reading Football Club. The government can’t do that. But what it can do is understand where the mistakes were made and how this came to be in the first place so that we can learn from them to ensure they don’t happen again.

No club, big or small, is immune to what has happened at Reading. A few poor financial decisions based on a view to grow have put us in a position where we’re now very much fighting for our lives. We were set up for success, but not to fail.

The reason we all love sport so much is because it provides those unrivalled moments of jeopardy. Who expected Greece to win the Euros, Leicester City to win the Premier League or, even more recently, Plymouth Argyle’s outstanding 1-0 victory against Liverpool? These are moments in the very fabric of society.

Sport isn’t about winning to get more money, it’s about winning for something money cannot buy. That personal pride of being part of a team. Whether that’s beating your friend in a game of pool at the pub or winning on a Saturday against your biggest rivals. It’s special and it should be protected.

As Reading fans, we have to remain confident that we’ll survive. Hope is what keeps us going.

Nothing we say or do will help influence the sale of the club - that’s up to Dai Yongge and the shareholders. But what we can do is look at the decisions of the past to ensure no other supporter goes through the stress and pain we’ve endured over the past few years.

We’ll see you in the Turtle.

You can sign Yuan Yang’s petition here.