Relief, relief, relief as Reading FC confirms takeover

I’ll caveat this article with an apology that this could just turn into tear-soaked, rambling gibberish as today my club officially confirmed the sale to American investors Rob Couhig and Todd Trosclair. By which I mean, Reading Football Club is no longer rotting away in the clutches of the Yongge family.

A statement from the club reads: “The Club are pleased to announce that Redwood Holdings Limited – a subsidiary company of Dogwood LLC, owned by Rob Couhig and Todd Trosclair of New Orleans, Louisiana – has completed the acquisition of 100% of the shareholding in Reading Football Club.

“The takeover, which has received EFL clearance, completed very early on Wednesday morning and includes the Select Car Leasing Stadium and Bearwood Park Training Ground.

“Both Couhig and Trosclair will join the club’s board with immediate effect, with Rob Couhig being named as Chairman.”

The overwhelming emotion right now is relief, there have been many times myself & other fans have feared the worst and assumed we were to end up with the same fate of the likes of Bury.

Kudos must absolutely go to the tireless efforts of the ‘Sell Before We Dai’ campaign, a group of fans themselves who were toothless in their pursuit of their efforts to get Dai Yongge out the club. Quite rightly they taglined their presence as “We never wanted to exist” but thank goodness they did.

I could thank every single person involved in fight to keep the club alive, but I’d be here for days. But to have our club back means so much.

Perhaps the key thing to focus on in the club statement is the following, “Redwood is ambitious and dedicated towards the club returning to its rightful place within the English football pyramid, while adhering to clear principles of honesty, transparency, and financial sustainability.”

That’s a statement on its own and we can only hope that it’s proof of genuine commitment to the betterment of the club as a whole.

There remains a level of uncertainty around what this means for the women’s team but for now they remain under the trusted stewardship of the very dedicated Community Trust and right now, that’s good enough for me.

Forza the SCL and up the bloody Ding!