Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has claimed that the EFL ‘have no teeth’ as he discussed Reading FC’s issues on TalkSport.
Reading’s horrendous takeover saga remains unresolved despite the club admitting that they ‘remain positive’ that talks with a buyer they are in exclusivity with can be completed at the earliest opportunity.
Speaking on TalkSport, Jordan said: “In defence of the EFL, the question should be asked what the suspension would entail. Whether people like it or they don’t like it, there’s a constitution that was agreed by the clubs and the EFL have to adhere to that.
“Until Dai Yongge was disqualified as a fit and proper person, they can’t get their teeth into what they can and can’t do with Reading.
“I’m curious to see how a suspension would work and how it would affect the fixture list. But I also understand there are people in the mix to be able to buy this asset.
“The fans will ask, how does it get to a point where the owner is able to do what he wants and the EFL have no teeth. It’s very easy to say to Rick Parry or Trevor Birch that we want these rules changed, but we require football clubs to vote these rules.
“Whether he’s disqualified or not, he’s still the owner.He (Dai) owns Reading – the fans own it emotionally – but he owns it.
“There’s no doubt that Dai Yongge once upon a time was tipping money into Reading, a significant amount of money.
“With due respect to John (Madejski), he was one of the people who sold it to the idiot Russian (Zingarevich) who then sold it to the Chinese. John ran it in a good way, named the stadium after himself and did lots of good things.”
Former Arsenal player Martin Keown added: “There are really good people behind the scenes that love the club, to see the way it has gone now is a crying shame and you just really hope that it’s going to be reduced.”