Embargos, HMRC Payment defaults, non payment of wages, the usual under Dai Wrongge

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Hearing that that cunt Simon Jordan said on talk sport yesterday that paying our tax late gave us a sporting advantage even though we haven`t got a pot to piss in at the moment.
Not the first time he`s had a dig at us, seems to have some kind of grievance against us for the reason.

I think it's just his role to be an obnoxious provocateur. Not sure it's anything specifically about Reading, he's just being that way bevause it keeps people listening.

[Hendo]

Hearing that that cunt Simon Jordan said on talk sport yesterday that paying our tax late gave us a sporting advantage even though we haven`t got a pot to piss in at the moment.
Not the first time he`s had a dig at us, seems to have some kind of grievance against us for the reason.

I mean every other club has to pay it on time - us deciding to pay our players before the tax man does give us a sporting advantage.

[Royals and Racers]

SKY reporting we will be docked 3 points if another match is disrupted similar to the Port Vale match.

[Sutekh]

Hearing that that cunt Simon Jordan said on talk sport yesterday that paying our tax late gave us a sporting advantage even though we haven`t got a pot to piss in at the moment.
Not the first time he`s had a dig at us, seems to have some kind of grievance against us for the reason.

Yes, at the time of the late payments, the real sporting advantage of getting hammered by everyone every week

[Hendo]

SKY reporting we will be docked 3 points if another match is disrupted similar to the Port Vale match.

Slow Sports News?

That was made aware quite soon after the Port Vale match.

[windermereROYAL]

SKY reporting we will be docked 3 points if another match is disrupted similar to the Port Vale match.

Yes we knew that already, hope the kids behave themselves because that will tip us over the edge. i think it has to result in an abandonment, but I suspect the EFL would hit us anyway.

[Greatwesternline]

Hearing that that cunt Simon Jordan said on talk sport yesterday that paying our tax late gave us a sporting advantage even though we haven`t got a pot to piss in at the moment.
Not the first time he`s had a dig at us, seems to have some kind of grievance against us for the reason.

Yes, at the time of the late payments, the real sporting advantage of getting hammered by everyone every week

The January transfer window was the clubs opportunity to become financially viable on a monthly basis in the absence of handouts from Dai.

Instead, the club made a business and sporting decision to keep all but three of our squad, and even added another on loan.

Results since transfer window opened:

WLLWDDWWDLWL

Much more sporting success there compared to our relegation rivals. A 3rd party observer might say Reading are gaining a continued sporting advantage compared to their competitors, by being able to maintain a superior playing squad which it can't actually afford.

[Stranded]

Hearing that that cunt Simon Jordan said on talk sport yesterday that paying our tax late gave us a sporting advantage even though we haven`t got a pot to piss in at the moment.
Not the first time he`s had a dig at us, seems to have some kind of grievance against us for the reason.

It is literally his job to rile people like your good self up to the point that you phone up to have a go at him - hopefully giving them a lovely viral clip they can share. It's Talksport, lowest common denominator radio.

Sporting Advatantage is a fairly nebulous term but the reality is - we have signed the players we have signed, those come with certain costs - we, like any club that makes a loss currently, cannot carry those costs unless the owner covers them. Our owner signed off on the players joining, knowing he most likely couldn't or wouldn't cover all required costs in good time.

Now, as it stands, and if everyone paid today, we are up to date with HMRC and wages but at the times of the key delays, the owner made a decision to delay the tax payment to ensure the players got paid. Why? Because not doing so would have:

a) seen us deducted 4pts per late payment and
b) may have seen players able to claim breach of contract and leave the club

As neither of those happened, the club did gain an advantage because we have not lost players that we did not chose to sell and we did not lose points - probably another 8 as wages were paid for 2 months where the club would not have been able to do so if it had met its HMRC liability.

So yes, we have gained an advantage as we are not in as much shit as we probably should be. Not an advantage to shout about but one nonetheless.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Thing is, hardly any professional football teams can survive without their owner so unsustainable is the pyramid. By having an owner who has lost interest and having to make cuts and sell players, we're already at a substantial disadvantage. It's not how it should, but it is. So we're simply having our disadvantage compounded by these punishments.

[Hound]

Yep, look forward to the day when all the other clubs are made to sell their best players so they aren’t at a sporting advantage but can be sustainable without owner input

Not that we would be had we sold Wing etc for a pittance. We’d just be relegated with an even worse squad. And still relying on Dai, just a few months further down the line

[Dirk Gently]

Thing is, hardly any professional football teams can survive without their owner so unsustainable is the pyramid.

That's the prevailing view, but there are a few clubs starting to challenge it through community ownership. What if the club is community owned and the members of the community put in a regular amount each month (e.g. a tenner) - add in larger sums from commercial enterprises who see value in supporting a club that's part of the community and a club can certainly survive and compete at the right level.

The problem, of course, is that they can't compete against billionaires or clubs with parachute payments, but it's certainly a model that works and one that secures the future of the team as long as the community continues to support it. And when the world runs out of idiots who are prepared to throw away their money on a football club, or the laws are changed so that rogues and chancers can't get away with it, it's a model that will become more and more popular.

[tmesis]

Much more sporting success there compared to our relegation rivals. A 3rd party observer might say Reading are gaining a continued sporting advantage compared to their competitors, by being able to maintain a superior playing squad which it can't actually afford.

And our rivals are all sticking to their budget?

[Greatwesternline]

Much more sporting success there compared to our relegation rivals. A 3rd party observer might say Reading are gaining a continued sporting advantage compared to their competitors, by being able to maintain a superior playing squad which it can't actually afford.

And our rivals are all sticking to their budget?

They are paying their bills as and when they fall due, yes.

[Sutekh]

Much more sporting success there compared to our relegation rivals. A 3rd party observer might say Reading are gaining a continued sporting advantage compared to their competitors, by being able to maintain a superior playing squad which it can't actually afford.

And our rivals are all sticking to their budget?

That's the issue with FFP, clubs could overspend and break budgets in one or two seasons so long as they manage to claw enough back in the third. Hoping the eventual fan led review thing will prompt a full review and complete change to ffp methodology across all 4 divisions so that it's consistent and clubs will get caught and done in the same season so as to avoid the total farces you get now with esp. the likes of Man City and Everton.

[Stranded]

Much more sporting success there compared to our relegation rivals. A 3rd party observer might say Reading are gaining a continued sporting advantage compared to their competitors, by being able to maintain a superior playing squad which it can't actually afford.

And our rivals are all sticking to their budget?

That is a moot point.

Around 90% of EFL clubs rely on an owner paying the bills - the debts they run up in competition terms mean nothing at this level as long as you meet your obligations. Our owner hasn't so we are looked at - doesn't matter if say Oxford are losing money hand over fist paying for a squad they can't afford as the wages and tax are paid - so in competition terms they can "afford" them.

Our biggest problem, and why sporting advantage is not probably the best term - the likelihood is we could have played this season with the u21s/u18s making up the team and there would still have been every chance that Dai wouldn't have paid the tax.

What we should have done is looked to sell the likes of Holmes in the summer, we would have got more money for him and would have likely made the chance of late payment less - we didn't, had a player on the books that, at the time, we weren't using and was costing us money in wages that could/should have paid some of the tax - whilst lessening the tax burden itself.

Dai is at fault for everything here but we could have sold some players in a more calm way than just accepting low ball bids in Jan to cover the whole and we may - just may - not have lost more points this week.

[tidus_mi2]

I think in hindsight poor decisions were made with regards to player wages and maintaining a Cat 1 academy considering all the instances of late taxes where we could have saved more money by going for weaker players or reduced funding to the academy. However, we may have been given assurances on expected income/support that haven't come to fruition, but who would trust Dai/his people at this point?

We really should have been aiming to run in a self-sufficient manner until the ownership situation was sorted but that perhaps would have guaranteed relegation while we are still in a good position to stay up with the current situation.

[Greatwesternline]

I think in hindsight poor decisions were made with regards to player wages and maintaining a Cat 1 academy considering all the instances of late taxes where we could have saved more money by going for weaker players or reduced funding to the academy. However, we may have been given assurances on expected income/support that haven't come to fruition, but who would trust Dai/his people at this point?

We really should have been aiming to run in a self-sufficient manner until the ownership situation was sorted but that perhaps would have guaranteed relegation while we are still in a good position to stay up with the current situation.

Another way to look at it is we have only been docked 6 points so far. If we kept the lead at Fleetwood, kept the lead at Shrewsbury it makes up 5 of those 6 points. 6 points isnt a lot over the course of a season for a club that has been relegated a division and clearly has a competitive squad. If it wasnt for the horror show run of results a month or two into the season we would be absolutely laughing.

[Hound]

We’d hardly be laughing. We’d be mid table in league 1. Still a massive drop under Dai

Everything is easy in hindsight. We should have sold Holmes - yes maybe but would anyone have bought him for any sort of money? I doubt it.

The other players we’ve sold - Vickers, Abbey, Harris - no one had ever heard of them before this season (Or at least Abbey had made about 2 sub appearances). So no money there.

We sold Ince and Carroll, Ince for his release fee.

Our other decent players joined in the summer on a free. So no money from them. Azeez had spent the last 2 seasons injured

We didn’t really have any assets to sell tbh. Maybe a few quid for a desperately out of form Holmes/mcintyre but that’s it

On the other hand we absolutely had to try to find players who would keep us up at the least. You have to invest at least something unless we’d just have withered away

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Anyone know if wages are confirmed as having been paid today?

[WestYorksRoyal]

I'd completed forgotten. Last month it was confirmed by 10am, so silence so far today is ominous.