OFFISHAL CONFRIMATION of the CONFIMRED

[Sutekh]

That's 5pm folks; the very specific time stated by the EFL for completion when they gave their latest extension.

This just gives the impression that EFL deadlines are meaningless.

Obviously, I would prefer a further extension to expulsion, but whats the point of giving a specific time and date for the completion, and then simply ignoring it?

The deadlines have made them look a bit foolish, especially when they knew that it was technically impossible for the earlier ones to be met.

Either set out exactly what stage you expect to deal to be at by a certain date or give a feasible date and stick to it.

It's like the doctor telling me: "You must lose 10kg of weight by next Tuesday 5pm".

I don’t see why the EFL keep setting deadlines other than an attempt to look like they are in control. If a sale is going through then there certain legal processes which must be followed. That is out of the EFL’s control surely.

It is but they want to be kept informed of progress and be assured something is actually happening thus the deadlines. All quite reasonable when you consider who is selling.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

The deadlines have made them look a bit foolish, especially when they knew that it was technically impossible for the earlier ones to be met.

Either set out exactly what stage you expect to deal to be at by a certain date or give a feasible date and stick to it.

It's like the doctor telling me: "You must lose 10kg of weight by next Tuesday 5pm".

I don’t see why the EFL keep setting deadlines other than an attempt to look like they are in control. If a sale is going through then there certain legal processes which must be followed. That is out of the EFL’s control surely.

It is but they want to be kept informed of progress and be assured something is actually happening thus the deadlines. All quite reasonable when you consider who is selling.

Agreed. The other option would be to say just carry on at your own pace Reading, see how you get on. maybe we'll check back in with you guys some time over the early summer.

They have to keep up the pressure somehow. the EFL are not to blame here.

[Orion1871]

The EFL are never at fault with you guys. Even when they were proven to be liars by The Times you gave them a pass.

[Elm Park Kid]

I'm of the view that the EFL hasn't always handled things great, but that our problems were of our own making and that blaming them is just childish.

They had no legal mechanism available to stop Dai taking us over. They had minimal power/ability to track exactly what he was doing once he did take us over.

Should the EFL (or an independent regulator) have more control/scrutiny of new owners? Of course. But the organisation isn't independent - it's literally just a boys club of all the EFL owners. And (surprise surprise), the owners don't want to vote for rules that would limit who can buy their assets.

[Hound]

Maybe the EFL shouldn’t have called them ‘deadlines’ which suggests some finality. Or at least said there’d be a series of deadlines for certain aspects to progress. Would have saved them looking even more powerless, stress on us, and these over clubs thinking we’re getting special treatment

Maybe ‘progress milestones’ or ‘checkpoints’ or something dreamed up by a lawyer which better describes what they’ve been

[traff]

I believe in current parlance the preferred expression is "optics"

[Winston Biscuit]

The deadlines have made them look a bit foolish, especially when they knew that it was technically impossible for the earlier ones to be met.

Either set out exactly what stage you expect to deal to be at by a certain date or give a feasible date and stick to it.

It's like the doctor telling me: "You must lose 10kg of weight by next Tuesday 5pm".

Its nothing at all like a doctor telling you that. Businesses do this all the time to retain a level of control and decision making ability. Its a completely normal thing.

If you wanted a better analogy, you could go with:

'you must lose 10kg in 6 months. Lets set your next appointment with me for 2 weeks time to see how you have started on that, so then if we know early on things are already not going as we have agreed, we will be in a better position to make any decisions or changes we may need to, rather than wait the full 6 months to review and potentially learn things later than we really need to. Especially after you have tried to lose this weight 4 times in the last 2 years or so and failed each time'

[genome]

Maybe the EFL shouldn’t have called them ‘deadlines’ which suggests some finality. Or at least said there’d be a series of deadlines for certain aspects to progress. Would have saved them looking even more powerless, stress on us, and these over clubs thinking we’re getting special treatment

Maybe ‘progress milestones’ or ‘checkpoints’ or something dreamed up by a lawyer which better describes what they’ve been

My theory is that the EFL were always going to give extensions but they've called them deadlines to force the sale to pick up the pace and get done

[Hound]

Maybe the EFL shouldn’t have called them ‘deadlines’ which suggests some finality. Or at least said there’d be a series of deadlines for certain aspects to progress. Would have saved them looking even more powerless, stress on us, and these over clubs thinking we’re getting special treatment

Maybe ‘progress milestones’ or ‘checkpoints’ or something dreamed up by a lawyer which better describes what they’ve been

My theory is that the EFL were always going to give extensions but they've called them deadlines to force the sale to pick up the pace and get done

Yes 100% but when they keep just extending those deadlines the phrase starts to lose all meaning

[Stranded]

The EFL are never at fault with you guys. Even when they were proven to be liars by The Times you gave them a pass.

The only thing that Times articled "proved" was that someone was not being fully truthful and it may not have been the EFL. As always, look at the timing of things.

Football Regulator bill passes a crucial step in Parliament, within hours the PL announce that they had told the EFL not to let Dai buy. Honestly, we really did - we are the good guys and we don't need a pesky regulator.

[Winston Biscuit]

Maybe the EFL shouldn’t have called them ‘deadlines’ which suggests some finality. Or at least said there’d be a series of deadlines for certain aspects to progress. Would have saved them looking even more powerless, stress on us, and these over clubs thinking we’re getting special treatment

Maybe ‘progress milestones’ or ‘checkpoints’ or something dreamed up by a lawyer which better describes what they’ve been

My theory is that the EFL were always going to give extensions but they've called them deadlines to force the sale to pick up the pace and get done

Yes 100% but when they keep just extending those deadlines the phrase starts to lose all meaning

To some on the outside maybe. As long as those on the inside of this know what it means then surely it's a non issue?

[WestYorksRoyal]

The EFL are never at fault with you guys. Even when they were proven to be liars by The Times you gave them a pass.

The only thing that Times articled "proved" was that someone was not being fully truthful and it may not have been the EFL. As always, look at the timing of things.

Football Regulator bill passes a crucial step in Parliament, within hours the PL announce that they had told the EFL not to let Dai buy. Honestly, we really did - we are the good guys and we don't need a pesky regulator.

Except the argument is flawed; if anything it proves that they were powerless and a more powerful body is needed.

[parky]

The EFL are never at fault with you guys. Even when they were proven to be liars by The Times you gave them a pass.

The only thing that Times articled "proved" was that someone was not being fully truthful and it may not have been the EFL. As always, look at the timing of things.

Football Regulator bill passes a crucial step in Parliament, within hours the PL announce that they had told the EFL not to let Dai buy. Honestly, we really did - we are the good guys and we don't need a pesky regulator.

Except the argument is flawed; if anything it proves that they were powerless and a more powerful body is needed.

The PL's point I think is slightly different.

The tone of the article was more that the PL got it right about Dai and therefore it's not them that needs regulation whereas the EFL got it wrong. The PL would argue that they can handle this themselves and therefore they should be the ones to manage the regulation. In a sense the PL would be happy with a football regulator provided it is them that manages it.

The truth however is that if we had won that playoff final, the PL would have done absolutely nothing to stop the takeover and would have welcomed Dai's millions into the league.

[RG30]

And the irony is he would have gone even more ballistic in terms of spending in the hope we could stay up.

[MartinRdg]

And the irony is he would have gone even more ballistic in terms of spending in the hope we could stay up.

A bit like Forest did...

[Hound]

My theory is that the EFL were always going to give extensions but they've called them deadlines to force the sale to pick up the pace and get done

Yes 100% but when they keep just extending those deadlines the phrase starts to lose all meaning

To some on the outside maybe. As long as those on the inside of this know what it means then surely it's a non issue?

But we’re talking about those on the outside (ie non directly part of the football club). By the lack of any panic etc I’m sure those on the inside know they are not absolute deadlines that can be moved out. It’s just confusing for those on the outside looking in that we keep missing deadlines and they just get extended again

[grey_squirrel]

I wonder what would have happened and where we’d be now if the Thais hadn’t sold to Dai and couldn’t have found anyone else to offload us to? Especially after the P/O defeat.

[parky]

And the irony is he would have gone even more ballistic in terms of spending in the hope we could stay up.

And it would have been interesting what happened when the Chinese govt stopped the tax breaks for foreign investment. We could have been Villa with Chinese owners looking to sell and find someone else quickly or Wolves who are still owned by Chinese nationals but who admittedly are better business people than Dai.

[Sutekh]

The EFL are never at fault with you guys. Even when they were proven to be liars by The Times you gave them a pass.

The FL are to blame in that the FFP/PS rules implemented are an utter farce and they enable clubs to find loopholes, workrounds and “shady” practices as they chase the dream, consequently breaches aren’t sanctioned in many cases until well after the event and not unusually when the club concerned is starting to struggle as idiot owners lose interest.

That said the club have no-one to blame but the idiot owner trying it on (and I think there really should be something here that enables the FL to step in and raise alarms and apply punishments based on a clubs financial state when that club offers contracts to new/existing players).

You can argue the toss as to who is actually to blame for letting him take over but that seems utterly pointless given where the club is now. The FL may still feel some small shred of guilt and have had the finger pointed at them before over the disappearances of Bury and Macclesfield but I really can’t complain at their treatment of Reading given the rules in place.

Let’s just hope it’s all over now and that new Profit & Sustainability rules are implemented sometime soon that enable the League to catch out and punish the “cheats” in the same season rather than 3 years later.

[Winston Biscuit]

Yes 100% but when they keep just extending those deadlines the phrase starts to lose all meaning

To some on the outside maybe. As long as those on the inside of this know what it means then surely it's a non issue?

But we’re talking about those on the outside (ie non directly part of the football club). By the lack of any panic etc I’m sure those on the inside know they are not absolute deadlines that can be moved out. It’s just confusing for those on the outside looking in that we keep missing deadlines and they just get extended again

Its the assumption that they are 'missed' that i don't agree with. People are just making so many assumptions when they know so little about this.