THINGS CAN GET UGG-LY!

KEEP SPATS PRIVATE

- Chris DUNLAVY

IS IT cowardly for the owner of a football club to shy from the limelight? Or simply a sensible precaution?

Dai Yongge, the Chinese supermarket tycoon who bought Reading in 2017, boasts a £600m fortune and owns a Westminster mansion across the road from Buckingham Palace.

Yet earlier this year, staff at the League One side’s Bearwood Park training ground found themselves working in freezing offices because the club couldn’t afford to pay heating bills. Several would later lose their jobs.

Yongge kept resolutely schtum, just as he did when wages turned up late, tax bills went unpaid, and points were docked by the EFL.

This juxtaposition of breadline hardship and vast personal wealth made Yongge’s silence completely unacceptable, and justified the on-pitch protests that marred several of Reading’s League One fixtures. He was bang out of order and cowardly to the core.

Equally, though, there are times when transparency is counterproductive. Back in October, Accrington Stanley owner Andy Holt reacted furiously to a radio interview given by the club’s assistant manager Jimmy Bell during which he had agitated for a new contract.