Former Wycombe Wanderers chairman Rob Couhig, who attempted to purchase Reading FC has spoken about the complex takeover process and his court case against Dai Yongge.
Dai has been disqualified by the EFL in an attempt to get him to divest his shares in the club, while Couhig is taking legal action against the owner as he alleges that the club broke exclusivity rules and is seeking more than £12million in potential loss of profits.
Speaking on the EFL Today podcast: “The soap opera continues. It really doesn’t change the commercial reality that exists, we’ve always taken the position that we have a legitimate claim because they brought us to the altar, we spent over a million dollars hiring accountants, an analyst, consultants, travel, getting ready to do the purchase.
“We sent all our money to England expecting to be able to sign the documents and went further than that. We signed the documents that were drafted by Mr Yongge’s lawyers and told us this was the deal.
“We were just sitting there and all of a sudden and without a phone call, a letter or anything they wired us back our money that we had lent but it left out there all the security devices were based on the likelihood and requirement that they would sell us the club on the terms that were agreed.
“So we have a claim now that we will pursue in June for damages and continue to tell them that we would be delighted to negotiate something else, but we’ve never heard from anybody.
“Mr Justice Jacobs pointed out in a commercial world that we are not an inpediment for the sale, never have been, will not be. Anybody who has bought any business or property deals with these issues all the time.
“They can take the message that I don’t roll over for anybody. For Reading I guess they continue to operate as normal.
“They’ve sold enough assets since we were supposed to have completed in September that they should have enough money I assume to pay all those things.
“What a fantastic group of lads who are only two points off the play-offs. Noel (Hunt) seems to be doing a fantastic job of unifying them in that age old way the players do as ‘us against the world’ and I hope that can continue.
“As for Mr Dai Yongge, I have no idea, I’d be lying if I told you.
“I’ve never talked to him, the people that surround him don’t talk to us. I don’t know if I blame Mr Dai for this but they seem to have surrounded themselves with people who go out of their way to blame the world for their issues. They concentrate too much on blaming people who are trying to do good.
“We get blamed for a ton of stuff. We went over and had five different trips over there. We were blamed by fans for going to the games when it was the management that advised us because they thought it would help them sell tickets.”
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