What is happening at Reading FC?

Reading fans took to the pitch in protest during a match against Port Vale in January 2024

Relegation, points deductions, redundancies, transfer embargoes, five collapsed takeovers, petitions and protest after protest.

To say Dai Yongge's tenure as owner of Reading Football Club has been turbulent would be an understatement.

Since the Chinese businessman took over in May 2017, the men's team have lost 18 points due to deductions, while the women's side have dropped four tiers.

The English Football League (EFL) has extended the deadline for Yongge to sell the club to 5 May.

Why are Reading fans unhappy with owner Dai Yongge?

Fans have been showing their displeasure at games

When Chinese businessman Dai Yongge took over Reading in 2017, the Royals were a play-off final win away from the promised land of the Premier League.

After relegation from the Championship in 2023, the club has been battling it out in League One.

Fans blame a lack of investment in players, points deductions and poor management of the club by the owner for their low position in the football pyramid.

The women's team have also tumbled down the leagues due to a lack of funding while a failed attempt to sell the training ground to Wycombe Wanderers angered fans greatly.

How have the fans showed their anger?

Protests - and lots of them.

Most notably in January 2024 when fans took to the pitch of the SCL Stadium during a home match against Port Vale resulting in the game being abandoned.

On various occasions Reading fans have coordinated throwing tennis balls onto the pitch during matches to delay play.

Masks depicting Dai Yongge as a clown and the carrying of a Reading FC coffin have also been on show at the SCL Stadium during the season.

What has the EFL done?

Many Reading fans have been frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of help from the governing body.

Points deductions from the EFL have been frequent for the club which has consistently broken the league's financial rules.

In mid-March, EFL chairman Rick Parry told the BBC that UK corporate law had stopped them "forcing a sale" of the club.

Days later it emerged that the EFL had disqualified Dai Yongge under its Owners' and Directors' Test and imposed an initial date of 4 April for him to sell up. The deadline has since been extended to 5 May.

How many attempts have there been to sell the club?

Dai Yongge has been publicly trying to sell Reading since March 2024.

This was when the club entered the first "period of exclusivity" in which it would only negotiate with one interested buyer.

Since this process started the club has entered into "exclusivity" periods six times, with five collapsing.

The most recent, and ongoing, is believed to be with Rob Couhig.

Who is Rob Couhig?

Rob Couhig has been involved in negotiations to buy the club

American businessman and lawyer Rob Couhig is the former owner of Wycombe Wanderers.

Couhig had previously been involved in negotiations to buy the club which collapsed.

In March Dai Yongge was involved in court proceedings in which he attempted to obtain an injunction against Couhig, claiming that he was blocking his attempt to sell the Royals.

The resolution of this legal case will be a key element in the sale of the club.

What happens if Reading FC is not sold?

Like so much of the last few years for Reading, the answer to this question uncertain.

The EFL has mentioned in statements about Dai Yongge that it has the power to suspend a club if a director fails to "comply with the requirements of their disqualification".

Reading's season ends with the visit of Barnsley on 3 May, unless of course they extend their season by making the play-offs, a position they are currently just missing out on by goal difference.

If Reading make the play-offs without being sold, the EFL will have to make a huge decision about what happens next.