CONFIMRED - The final countdown

[Snowflake Royal]

1) Dai is in exclusive sale discussions with someone, presumed to be Platek, and the FL seem to have said they're in dialogue with them. We can take this as a Fact then.

I doubt Dai himself is in discussions, but tweak that to "Representatives of the club" and I reckon that will be a Fact.

2) What we don't know is how far along in negotiations they are and whether the buyer [Inference Platek] is in a position to buy us NOW or before the expiration of some further deadline extension. Or even whether he'd go through with a purchase at all.

Definitely a Fact that we don't know.

3) Dai has been in exclusivity discussions with at least three parties, possibly four, I forget. None of those actually resulted in a sale, with Couhig getting closest.

To be honest, I've lost count. We assume Couhig got closest only because he jumped the gun and went public, but I imagine he was really close. You can understand why the new bidder, who we all believe is Platek is keeping quiet, But given the timescales, I would hope they are ready to sign and transfer the money.

4) So it's an Assumption that anything would actually complete even if Couhig had agreed to this.

Agree

5) We can Infer that there's still an 'easy' route through to a sale, all that has to happen is Platek puts £12m of what he proposes to pay for the club in Escrow, to be held until Couhig's case is decided and ge distributed afterwards based on the outcome of the case. If Platek is poised to buy the club as soon as Couhig's 'block' is removed, then it's trivial to solve if Platek wants to buy and Dai is being honest about the commitment.

The big variable we can't predict, Dai Yongge. His motives and reasoning can not be predicted, He's had plenty of easy routes to sell the club, we can't assume anything.

6) Couhig is suing Dai for breaching exclusivity and reneging on his agreement to sell the club to Dai, for loss of income. Fact

Sounds about right, although you can generally only sue for losses not missed opportunities, I would assume the counter argument would be that club is losing money each month so arguably by the time the case is heard Couhig would have avoided losing more money already than he's claiming.
Also small typo "sell the club to Dai"

7) it's unreasonable to expect Couhig to just accept Dai's promise, when he's suing him for dishonesty and broken agreements.

Agreed

8) Couhig would buy us today if Dai signed.

Speculation - Not sure myself, Is his aim now to screw over Dai rather than to buy the football club? - Have his backers taken their money elsewhere? Does he have another target in mind? Are we a better or worse investment than before?

9) Dai selling to Couhig would open the door to Platek taking the same legal action Couhig is. But that would be post survival of club and Platek presumably doesn't have the same leverage with the liens as Couhig. But that's an educated Assumption

Just how messy would that be?

Sorry, Couhig has said he would buy us today if Dai agreed.

[traff]

I am afraid, that as usual, the silence is deafening. Standard MO from the toad and its spawn I have never thought that he is going to sell and have unfortunately not seen anything to change that view.
Stand out memories
Promotion at Leicester
Simod Cup
Cureton's goal at Brentford
Getting stuffed 6 by Rovers at home
Blakey and the team taking those quick corners
That 4-3 against Plymouth
Steve Francis getting knocked out against Portsmouth then jumping up a fw seconds later.
Terry Hurlock nutting Keown in front of the South Bank (looked like Animal from the muppets headbutting a mirror.)
Trevor Senior pretending to trip up before every game
Colin Gordon scoring 2 to knock out Chelsea in League cup
Watching Ritchie Bowman and Pat Earle.
Futcher breaking Hick’s jaw (yet another poor refereeing miss)
Drinking in the rendezvous with Billy Whitehurst and Stuart Beavon
Gilkes equalizing at the Baseball ground
Taking over the home end at Newport to see the 13th straight win
Really not enjoying the FA cup tie at Barry
Last game at Elm Park
The Premier league game at home to Palace
Watching Paul Cannoville
Watching George Best in a Reading shirt
Ollie,Ollie Ollie Kearns- He shot he missed
Llloyd George knew my father
Playoff semi against Wigan
All that heartbreak at Wembley
Taking my son to his first game
And hundreds more.
We need to fill out the ground this Saturday and all our remaining fixtures if this is the end we owe it to ourselves.

[Greatwesternline]

His claim is way more complicated than that. While it does include lost time and money invested into the takeover, plus damages for breaching exclusivity, it's more than a bit basic to interpret “lost profits” as “taking a monthly income”. It’s his argument that the deal was terminated unjustly, and that if Dai had behaved lawfully, RC would be in possession of shares that would have risen in value. The evaluation includes financial projections that haven’t been publicly disclosed. My guess is that RC’s team had a strategy in place that factored in promotions, matchday and commercial revenue, player development and sales, broadcasting and solidarity payments, that would improve the club’s valuation over a long period. It doesn’t matter about Reading running at a loss – now or in the future. It matters what price the shares would increase. RC's whole shtick has been about turning around the fortunes and value of football clubs, leaving them stronger than when he arrived.

RC is seeking to prove that DY terminated the deal unlawfully. If he can do that, he can rightly claim damages equal to the amount he projects, or lower than depending on whether the judge finds the projection credible.

Note, he doesn’t have to prove without doubt he’d have lost £12m. Much like a court case in which someone sues for damages due to libel or deformation – you provide an estimate of what the deformation might have cost you, back that up with evidence as best you can, and the court decides if that’s fair. Johnny Depp recently took Amber Heard to court for $50m damages, and though he won, the court decided a valuation of $15m. This is how law works; you punch high, as there is absolutely no reason not to sue for the most money you think you could get. You can still win (because the court finds the grounds of your claim legitimate) but leave with less (because they didn’t find enough convincing evidence for the full amount).

So yeah, it’s such a dumb take to think this is about how much profit the club makes.

In UK law you cannot claim for speculative hypothetical future losses. You need to prove an actual loss, and you also need to show that you attempted to mitigate your own loss.

RC has not made £12m in losses. As reported on from the court hearing on here, Couhig's lawyers said during exclusivity Dai sent a prospectus out to some other interested buyers. That was a breach of exclusivity. There is a breach of contract there. And the loss in RC's eyes is he lost the opportunity to buy the club because clearly someone else is now trying to buy it.

So RC needs to prove his loss as a result of the breach of exclusivity. That loss cannot be future profits from RFC sale at some point in the future, that is too hypothetical. I can't sue a company if they didnt deliver on a good or service, and as a result i lose next year's hypothetical profits, if you could sue another company for future losses, no one would ever into contract with anyone else.

Dai would have been reasonably aware that Couhig hoped to make some money out of Reading and was denied that opportunity by the breach, so there is some reasonable loss, but that loss can't be "well if i got them promoted I'd make £20m", its too remote.

All the lawyers involved know this because it's module 1 of UK contract law. But....there is a reasonable claim around some loss, but its certainly not tens of millions.

Both of these statements can be true at the same time:

RC is holding up a sale.
DY is messing around and isn't that bothered about selling because the sales price is now so low if makes little difference to him.


RC refusing to give up his securities and killing a sale may lead to RFC being kicked out, in which case RC has security of some assets with no use to them. Logic dictates a deal will still be found. But not if £6m here or there is so small to Dai that he shrugs his shoulders of it all.

I don't know anything about this sort of thing, other than I'm currently involved in a legal case that involves a suit for loss of hypothetical future earnings.

We're applying for it to be struck out and the legal view is that has a high chance of success, but we're still being sued for hypothetical bullshit. So you certainly can do it. Just your prospect of success is likely limited. And the application to strike out is predominantly because we didn't do anything wrong, rather than the claim is hypothetical future earnings

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

[windermereROYAL]

Waiting for a club/EFL statement today. never know, we might get both.

[Snowflake Royal]

In UK law you cannot claim for speculative hypothetical future losses. You need to prove an actual loss, and you also need to show that you attempted to mitigate your own loss.

RC has not made £12m in losses. As reported on from the court hearing on here, Couhig's lawyers said during exclusivity Dai sent a prospectus out to some other interested buyers. That was a breach of exclusivity. There is a breach of contract there. And the loss in RC's eyes is he lost the opportunity to buy the club because clearly someone else is now trying to buy it.

So RC needs to prove his loss as a result of the breach of exclusivity. That loss cannot be future profits from RFC sale at some point in the future, that is too hypothetical. I can't sue a company if they didnt deliver on a good or service, and as a result i lose next year's hypothetical profits, if you could sue another company for future losses, no one would ever into contract with anyone else.

Dai would have been reasonably aware that Couhig hoped to make some money out of Reading and was denied that opportunity by the breach, so there is some reasonable loss, but that loss can't be "well if i got them promoted I'd make £20m", its too remote.

All the lawyers involved know this because it's module 1 of UK contract law. But....there is a reasonable claim around some loss, but its certainly not tens of millions.

Both of these statements can be true at the same time:

RC is holding up a sale.
DY is messing around and isn't that bothered about selling because the sales price is now so low if makes little difference to him.


RC refusing to give up his securities and killing a sale may lead to RFC being kicked out, in which case RC has security of some assets with no use to them. Logic dictates a deal will still be found. But not if £6m here or there is so small to Dai that he shrugs his shoulders of it all.

I don't know anything about this sort of thing, other than I'm currently involved in a legal case that involves a suit for loss of hypothetical future earnings.

We're applying for it to be struck out and the legal view is that has a high chance of success, but we're still being sued for hypothetical bullshit. So you certainly can do it. Just your prospect of success is likely limited. And the application to strike out is predominantly because we didn't do anything wrong, rather than the claim is hypothetical future earnings

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

So there's no point arguing he can't do it when he can, just because it's highly unlikely to be successful.

Couhig is a successful lawyer, nd has access to all the relevant info, which we don't. I expect he knows what he's doing more than you or I

[Hound]

I don't know anything about this sort of thing, other than I'm currently involved in a legal case that involves a suit for loss of hypothetical future earnings.

We're applying for it to be struck out and the legal view is that has a high chance of success, but we're still being sued for hypothetical bullshit. So you certainly can do it. Just your prospect of success is likely limited. And the application to strike out is predominantly because we didn't do anything wrong, rather than the claim is hypothetical future earnings

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

So there's no point arguing he can't do it when he can, just because it's highly unlikely to be successful.

Couhig is a successful lawyer, nd has access to all the relevant info, which we don't. I expect he knows what he's doing more than you or I I

Since when has that ever stopped us?

[Snowflake Royal]

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

So there's no point arguing he can't do it when he can, just because it's highly unlikely to be successful.

Couhig is a successful lawyer, nd has access to all the relevant info, which we don't. I expect he knows what he's doing more than you or I I

Since when has that ever stopped us?

Never!

[Armadillo Roadkill]

If Couhig dropped his case today, the league would probably be satisfied if Platek gave them assurances the sale was going to go through. It could still fail (see Couhig) but it may provide a stay of execution from the EFL.

If Dai sells to Couhig this week, I expect Platek would be able to sue him for breach of exclusivity. Platek obviously hasn't got the same grip over the stadium and training ground that Couhig does, but I expect it's something Dai would rather avoid just the same.

Most likely scenario is:

We get to Saturday and the club isn't sold.

On Monday, the EFL provide an extension to the end of the regular league season.

Couhig doesn't budge, despite the fact it's obvious he won't win his court case in June.

The club is suspended at the end of the league season.

After that it's either - Couhig finally gives up, Platek buys the club in time for us to be allowed to take part in League 1 next season.

Or, Couhig holds out and loses his case, then it's a question of is that too late for us to be admitted into the league next season.

Or, there's enough money in the escrow to satisfy Couhig, Platek buys the club, then what happens to Couhig doesn't matter any more.

Or something else I haven't thought of.

[MartinRdg]

If Couhig dropped his case today, the league would probably be satisfied if Platek gave them assurances the sale was going to go through. It could still fail (see Couhig) but it may provide a stay of execution from the EFL.

If Dai sells to Couhig this week, I expect Platek would be able to sue him for breach of exclusivity. Platek obviously hasn't got the same grip over the stadium and training ground that Couhig does, but I expect it's something Dai would rather avoid just the same.

Most likely scenario is:

We get to Saturday and the club isn't sold.

On Monday, the EFL provide an extension to the end of the regular league season.

Couhig doesn't budge, despite the fact it's obvious he won't win his court case in June.

The club is suspended at the end of the league season.

After that it's either - Couhig finally gives up, Platek buys the club in time for us to be allowed to take part in League 1 next season.

Or, Couhig holds out and loses his case, then it's a question of is that too late for us to be admitted into the league next season.

Or, there's enough money in the escrow to satisfy Couhig, Platek buys the club, then what happens to Couhig doesn't matter any more.

Or something else I haven't thought of.

Or Dai gives up and sells to Couhig with Couhig dropping the case so getting a cheaper deal

[Greatwesternline]

I don't know anything about this sort of thing, other than I'm currently involved in a legal case that involves a suit for loss of hypothetical future earnings.

We're applying for it to be struck out and the legal view is that has a high chance of success, but we're still being sued for hypothetical bullshit. So you certainly can do it. Just your prospect of success is likely limited. And the application to strike out is predominantly because we didn't do anything wrong, rather than the claim is hypothetical future earnings

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

So there's no point arguing he can't do it when he can, just because it's highly unlikely to be successful.

Couhig is a successful lawyer, nd has access to all the relevant info, which we don't. I expect he knows what he's doing more than you or I

He's doing lawfare to extract some money out of Dai. He's entitled to a smidgen because Dai breached confidentiality. His claims are outrageously large, to anyone who understands contract law. he is starting from a high number to get a small number.

He is a barrier to the sale of the club. yet some people are sort of giving him a free pass.

He's being a twat same as Dai.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I don't know how to judge Couhig, but my message to him, Howe and anyone else involved is that if we go under, there a no heroes. Only villains.

He talks about protecting his reputation, but given his high profile role in the saga, he will be tarnished if we go under, whether it's fair or not.

[The Royal Forester]

Couhig has said that as he owns the liens on Bearwood and the Stadium Dai cannot put the club into administration or fold the club whilst that situation exists. What I don't get is, as they are three separate companies, is why Dai can't put the club into liquidation and leave Couhig with a stadium and training ground without a team if RC wins the court case in June. Can anyone enlighten me, please, as I have been mulling it over for a while now and can't find the answer anywhere? I am not saying this would solve the problems we have, but I wouldn't put it past Dai to do something along these lines, if he is able to.

[Esteban]

Couhig has said that as he owns the liens on Bearwood and the Stadium Dai cannot put the club into administration or fold the club whilst that situation exists. What I don't get is, as they are three separate companies, is why Dai can't put the club into liquidation and leave Couhig with a stadium and training ground without a team if RC wins the court case in June. Can anyone enlighten me, please, as I have been mulling it over for a while now and can't find the answer anywhere? I am not saying this would solve the problems we have, but I wouldn't put it past Dai to do something along these lines, if he is able to.

It's a great question. I don't know the answer, but my guess would be that Dai loses out massively if he does that. The club is effectively just a name and a place in the league, plus players. We'll only have 5 contracted in the summer at this rate, so there's very little value in the club, probably?

I would think all of the value sits in the stadium and Bearwood - mainly Bearwood.

[Snowflake Royal]

If Couhig dropped his case today, the league would probably be satisfied if Platek gave them assurances the sale was going to go through. It could still fail (see Couhig) but it may provide a stay of execution from the EFL.

If Dai sells to Couhig this week, I expect Platek would be able to sue him for breach of exclusivity. Platek obviously hasn't got the same grip over the stadium and training ground that Couhig does, but I expect it's something Dai would rather avoid just the same.

Most likely scenario is:

We get to Saturday and the club isn't sold.

On Monday, the EFL provide an extension to the end of the regular league season.

Couhig doesn't budge, despite the fact it's obvious he won't win his court case in June.

The club is suspended at the end of the league season.

After that it's either - Couhig finally gives up, Platek buys the club in time for us to be allowed to take part in League 1 next season.

Or, Couhig holds out and loses his case, then it's a question of is that too late for us to be admitted into the league next season.

Or, there's enough money in the escrow to satisfy Couhig, Platek buys the club, then what happens to Couhig doesn't matter any more.

Or something else I haven't thought of.

It's not Platek who needs to give assurances, it's Dai, and he can't be trusted.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

So there's no point arguing he can't do it when he can, just because it's highly unlikely to be successful.

Couhig is a successful lawyer, nd has access to all the relevant info, which we don't. I expect he knows what he's doing more than you or I

He's doing lawfare to extract some money out of Dai. He's entitled to a smidgen because Dai breached confidentiality. His claims are outrageously large, to anyone who understands contract law. he is starting from a high number to get a small number.

He is a barrier to the sale of the club. yet some people are sort of giving him a free pass.

He's being a twat same as Dai.

I'm fully on the same page. As of this moment, Couhig's case is the most obvious threat to the survival of the club. And it's spurious.

What's in the past is in the past. I'm not saying Dai hasn't ruined the club. But Couhig is the immediate problem. I've been shot down in flames and called "dumb," and worse, for pointing this out.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

If Couhig dropped his case today, the league would probably be satisfied if Platek gave them assurances the sale was going to go through. It could still fail (see Couhig) but it may provide a stay of execution from the EFL.

If Dai sells to Couhig this week, I expect Platek would be able to sue him for breach of exclusivity. Platek obviously hasn't got the same grip over the stadium and training ground that Couhig does, but I expect it's something Dai would rather avoid just the same.

Most likely scenario is:

We get to Saturday and the club isn't sold.

On Monday, the EFL provide an extension to the end of the regular league season.

Couhig doesn't budge, despite the fact it's obvious he won't win his court case in June.

The club is suspended at the end of the league season.

After that it's either - Couhig finally gives up, Platek buys the club in time for us to be allowed to take part in League 1 next season.

Or, Couhig holds out and loses his case, then it's a question of is that too late for us to be admitted into the league next season.

Or, there's enough money in the escrow to satisfy Couhig, Platek buys the club, then what happens to Couhig doesn't matter any more.

Or something else I haven't thought of.

It's not Platek who needs to give assurances, it's Dai, and he can't be trusted.

If Couhig were to drop his case today, the sale to Platek wouldn't be complete by Saturday. But if he could show it was really likely to go through and he was committed, that might be enough to placate the EFL. Dai's assurances alone wouldn't be enough.

[Whore Jackie]

Last year's EFL AGM was 7 June. Fixtures released 26 June. Season started 9/10 August.

2025/26 League 1 and League 2 starts a week earlier 2/3 August. With play-off finals 24/25/26 May, I reckon we're looking at similar dates re AGM and fixture release, could possibly be a week earlier?

2025/26 fixture release date now confirmed as Thursday 26 June. So assume this year's AGM will be similar to last year. First or second week of June.

https://www.efl.com/news/2025/april/03/ ... announced/

[Hound]

I wouldn’t be 100% confident Dai would sell to Platek if Couhig wasn’t about

As the court case stated, those securities shouldn’t stop the sale of the club. They just need to agree to the Escrow and do that bit properly and legally

[Greatwesternline]

I wouldn’t be 100% confident Dai would sell to Platek if Couhig wasn’t about

As the court case stated, those securities shouldn’t stop the sale of the club. They just need to agree to the Escrow and do that bit properly and legally

To be precise, the judge said, in his opinion, the open securities court case needn't stop the sale. RC could agree to the security being put over cash in an escrow instead of over the physical assets of the club. But that would require RC to agree to do that. He doesnt have to.

There is a man here who wants to buy the club, and is pissed off he can't. And isnt actually that happy about giving up his securities over the stadium in favour of some money, he'd rather have the assets than the money.

We shall see.

[Snowflake Royal]

One can try anything speculative if one can find some counsel to argue ones case. The point is, one won't succeed. The threat of legal action is used as a bargaining position. Defending oneself from speculative and meritless suits is time consuming and expensive, so people often settle rather than fight it.

So there's no point arguing he can't do it when he can, just because it's highly unlikely to be successful.

Couhig is a successful lawyer, nd has access to all the relevant info, which we don't. I expect he knows what he's doing more than you or I

He's doing lawfare to extract some money out of Dai. He's entitled to a smidgen because Dai breached confidentiality. His claims are outrageously large, to anyone who understands contract law. he is starting from a high number to get a small number.

He is a barrier to the sale of the club. yet some people are sort of giving him a free pass.

He's being a twat same as Dai.

Funnily enough, that's exactly what I've been saying since he announced the legal challenge.

He's not a significant bar to the sale though. Because the workaround is simple if a sale is actually wanted and imminent for Dai and Platek