A Chinese billionaire brother and sister have been slammed after leaving one of Britain’s oldest clubs on the brink of a ‘painful death’ – as fans begged Keir Starmer to face down UEFA over a regulation row that threatens to see England banned from its own Euros.
The European soccer governing body’s general secretary Theodore Theodoridis warned the government that the Three Lions could be banned from the tournament they are co-hosting, saying that there should be ‘no government interference in the running of football’.
Proposed plans would give a new regulator the power to oversee clubs in England’s top five leagues – which Starmer says is compatible with what Uefa say is a ‘fundamental requirement’ to maintain the game’s independence.
Fans of stricken Reading Football Club say the proposed oversight is essential to stopping other clubs falling victim to deeply unpopular owners like their own, who are accused of running the 152-year-old club into the ground.
Dai Yongge, 56, and his sister Xiu Li, 61, bought Britain’s fifth oldest club in 2017 with the goal of returning it to the Premier League. But since they took over, the club has been landed with transfer embargoes and points deductions through poor financial management.
Now the desperate town – who have seen their team plummet down to League One for the first time since 2002 – are begging for a football regulator to be set up to save other clubs in similar situations.
Dai Yongge, 56, (pictured) and his sister Xiu Li, 61, bought Britain’s fifth oldest club in 2017 with the goal of returning it to the Premier League
Since the siblings took over, the club has been landed with transfer embargoes and points deductions through poor financial management. Pictured: Xiu Li
Proposed plans would give a new regulator the power to oversee clubs in England’s top five leagues – which Keir Starmer says is compatible with what Uefa say is a ‘fundamental requirement’ to maintain the game’s independence. Pictured: The Prime Minister celebrates an Arsenal goal
Fans of stricken Reading Football Club say the proposed oversight is essential to stopping other clubs falling victim to deeply unpopular owners like their own. Pictured: A march against the owners
Uefa’s general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said it was a ‘fundamental requirement’ that the game remains free of governmental interference
Fans had hoped American former Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig would soon be announced as the new owner but their dreams were dashed when the club announced this week that the deal had fallen through.
It leaves the club once again teetering on the brink, still owned by Dai Yongge, while Reading is reportedly only financially stable because of money coming from a sell-on clause in former player Michael Olise’s contract, who joined Bayern Munich this summer.
Olise joined Crystal Palace from Reading in 2021 but a clause in his contract allegedly meant that the Royals have received a percentage of the fee Bayern Munich paid the Premier League club for him this summer.
Caroline Parker, 43, from campaign group Sell Before We Dai, has grown up in Reading supporting the team but says she feels ‘helpless’ as she watches her club in decline.
The mother-of-one told MailOnline: ‘We’re so powerless. We are so helpless. We’ve tried everything we can to get him to sell the club but we’re all out of ideas.
‘I know people are slightly wary about having regulation on private industry but football is not a normal private industry. It is a part of people’s soul. It’s part of their family, it’s part of their community – it’s the town they grew up in, it’s the thing they watch every Saturday with their parents.
‘We’re stuck in this purgatory where you don’t want to fund the club and pay the bills, but you don’t want to sell. It’s just a devastating situation. It feels like a long, drawn out, painful death.
‘I think if UEFA is trying to strong arm English football into backing away from a regulator, they’re making the wrong move, because we need one.’
The previous Conservative government had announced plans to appoint a regulator last year, saying it was necessary to protect clubs from financial mismanagement and to stop wealthy teams from joining breakaway leagues.
Starmer’s Labour government committed to the regulator in its legislative agenda after being elected in July, saying it would protect clubs, ensure financial sustainability and give fans more of a voice in running the clubs they support.
The Prime Minister suggested the proposals did not need changing to comply with the rules, and that Uefa had fewer objections to the plans than they had previously.
Fans had hoped American former Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig (pictured) would soon be announced as the new owner but their dreams were dashed when the club announced this week that the deal had fallen through
Reading fans have seen their team plummet down to League One for the first time since 2002. Pictured: Former manager Jaap Stam with Dai Yongge
Devoted fans say they feel ‘helpless’ as they watch their team fall through the leagues
The Chinese billionaire has cost the club more points than any of the club’s opponents have won in matches against them
Reading is reportedly only financially stable because of money coming from a sell-on clause in former player Michael Olise’s contract, who joined Bayern Munich this summer. Pictured: Olise after scoring for Bayern Munich this week, and right at Reading, where he started his career
And Ms Parker says the new system would be essential to keeping clubs out of the hands of ‘rogue’ billionaires.
She continued: ‘It’s a tale as old as time that you get someone who gets a football club as a toy, they chuck the house at it and when it doesn’t pay off they get bored of the toy and stop playing with it. And then you’re left to pick up the pieces, which is what’s happened with Reading.
‘What they need to do is have some powers to remove owners that have no interest in actually funding the football clubs anymore.
‘We’ve got to be able to get rogue owners out of football clubs. They can’t just be allowed to stay there indefinitely if they’re not prepared to fund the club, and they’ve got to make sure they can protect football clubs.
‘We would like reading to be a test case for the shadow regulator that’s being set up at the moment to work through that model and see if Reading would pass the checks of the regulator.
‘You’ve got a live basket case club right in front of your eyes to test. We tick all the boxes we can. We’ve got all the numbers on the bingo card. They’re looking a gift horse in the mouth.’
Elusive tycoons Dai and Xiu Li first made their money turning old air raid shelters in China into shopping malls.
Xiu Li was catapulted into the world of the super-rich following the lucrative schemes – which earned her an estimated £1.1billion by 2011 and placed her on The Sunday Times Rich List.
Elusive tycoons Dai and Xiu Li first made their money turning old air raid shelters in China into shopping malls. Pictured: Dai watching a game between Hull City and Leicester City
Reading’s fortunes have spiralled since they bought the club in 2017, and with the billionaire searching for a new owner, bills have been left unpaid, landing the Royals with even more points deductions
Hardworking and loyal fans who spend thousands every year following their team have been left heartbroken – and many place the blame on Dai
She and her then-husband Tony Hawken, a former maths teacher, traded up their semi-detached home in South Norwood, London, and bought a £1.5million house in Surrey – but split after he struggled with their sudden wealth.
Reading’s fortunes have spiralled since Xiu Li and her brother Dai Yongge bought the club in 2017.
Dai has announced he is searching for a new owner but bills left unpaid have landing the Royals with even more points deductions.
Hardworking and loyal fans who spend thousands every year following their team have been left heartbroken – and many place the blame on Dai Yongge and his associates.
Attempts to get Reading into the Premier League left the club spending far more than the league’s current regulator, the EFL, allowed.
Even though Dai passed the EFL’s test for owners, the EFL has deducted Reading 18 points during Dai’s reign.
Figures last year found the club was losing around £600,000 every week.
The accounts for the football club are currently overdue, according to Companies House, with the last accounts made up to June 2022.
It means the Chinese billionaire has cost the club more points than any of the club’s opponents have won in matches against them.
Sources close to the EFL previously told MailOnline that football ownership has a gamble culture in which some owners spend large sums of money to try to win promotion. Speaking about the crisis at Reading, they said the situation wasn’t good for anyone.
They added that while it might not be a perfect world, the EFL had to take some kind of action.
She and her former-Maths-teacher husband Tony Hawken (pictured) traded up their semi-detached home in South Norwood, London, and bought a £1.5million house in Surrey – but split after he struggled with their sudden wealth
Dai’s attempts to get Reading into the Premier League left the club spending far more than the league’s current regulator, the EFL, allowed
The Chinese shopping mall tycoon is King Charles III’s neighbour. Pictured: Dai Yongge’s front hallway
Back in May 2017, Dai was welcomed to Reading as simply the latest Chinese businessman to buy a European football club.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told MailOnline that key figures in the Chinese government had suggested hosting the FIFA World Cup as a way to flex China’s muscles on the world stage.
Their plan was for Chinese billionaires to buy European clubs and cosy up to the idea of China being involved in the footballing community.
Yet when Chinese President Xi Jinping took a dislike to the vast sums players were paid, the attraction of owning a European club withered.
Maguire said: ‘There was a view taken by the Chinese government that they wanted to expand influence.
‘When President Xi had a rethink… the desire to encourage buying European clubs diminished.’
‘[Dai has] been successful domestically in China. But the Chinese government effectively [decides if large sums can go out of the country.]’
This marbled bathroom, which has a bath on a plinth and two separate sinks, is one of nine in his mansion
Dai Yongge has been accused of ‘killing’ the club he owns and is rarely seen in Reading. However, after a long day he can enjoy the ten-metre swimming pool on the bottom floor of his London mansion
‘If China doesn’t approve the money going out, ‘then the money is stuck,’ Maguire said.
These days Yongge is rarely seen at Reading’s home of the Select Car Leasing Stadium, formerly called the Madejski.
In Reading, which is a little more than 40 miles away from Dai’s luxury London mansion, the football club is facing administration.
The billionaire lives in a flash pad worth nearly £100million in the centre of the capital, which includes eight bedrooms, a spa with a ten-metre swimming pool, sauna, gym, bar and treatment room, a private garage and even a six-person lift to each of the mansion’s seven floors.
The Chinese multi-billionaire is said to frequent Les Ambassadeurs casino in Mayfair, one of London’s most ‘exclusive and distinguished clubs’. There, he gambles with his wealth, which he made through a variety of mysterious deals.
Football finance expert Maguire said: ‘If it gets put into administration, [the new owner] wouldn’t have to deal with debts but there’s a 12-point deduction and a potential 15-point deduction [when the club comes out of it].
‘[Dai has] put a lot of money in [the club]. He’s been advised by people focusing on self-interest rather than the interests of the club.
‘Super agents cosy up to [owners] and assist in recruitment, benefiting them rather than the club.’
MailOnline has contacted Reading FC and Dai Yongge for comment.