Club And Howe Fined For Olise Negotiations

15 May 2024
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Reading have been handed a massive 200,000 pound fine after former Reading player Michael Olise's agent was banned for six months for breaching FA rules concerning his future transfer away from the Royals. Although the fine dates back to negotiations in 2019, Olise left Reading in 2021 for 8 million pounds to Crystal Palace. The agent negotiated a huge 10 percent payout on Olise's future transfer. Olise is of course, without exaggeration, one of the best Premier League players right now. In a season filled with injury he has still emerged as one to most exciting players in the top tier. When Olise is fit and playing, Crystal Palace generally win games and Olise is always involved with goals or assists. He was fantastic at Reading but has taken it up a level in the Premier League with Palace valuing him at over 60 million pounds. Even with that price tag it is likely a team will come in for Olise this summer, which of course will be big money for his new agent.

Reading FC's fine comes with Reading continuing to struggle with finances and relying on loans being provided by a potential new owner. There is further bad news for the club with Nigel Howe also in big trouble for his role in the transfer. Howe, who had been, and continues to be, key in negotiations for the sale of the club has been "issued an immediate six-month suspension from involvement with player contract negotiations and transfer related activity, and a further six-month suspension from all football related activity to commence upon the expiry of the first suspension." Howe has also received a 5,000 pound fine personally. Michael Gilkes and club secretary Sue Hewett have also received a warning for their involvement.

Howe's suspension from football, to follow in six months time, essentially means that he has six months to wrap up the sale of the football club to new owners. That timeline was already something we hoped the club would work within, but it now becomes even more pressing. And more pressing again with another massive bill to pay in the shape of this new fine. The report on Howe's involvmement stated: "his own account of his approach to the negotiation with Mr Tweneboah, and indeed such negotiations in general, is nothing short of astonishing".

The club have issued a statement to say they are "extremely disappointed with the decision" but accept "the Club's conduct fell short of the high standards with which we usually operate, and the Club is committed to ensuring this will not happen again." The Club have stated that the sanctions are excessive and it's hard to disagree. It is a huge blow when we are struggling to do the basic things like pay player and back-room staff wages. The massive fine will cause further issues when the club is working work to get themselves out of the mess it has been in due to past years of poor management.

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