Terrence Collina Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Reading Town FC are in all kinds of bother and the situation is so bad that they may cease to exist. Last summer the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council took a controlling interest in the club and secured sponsorship with the GMB who through the Southern Region provide the Chairman and Chief Executive of the club. There has been a problem paying players their expenses (not wages) and apparently this was because the players were not submitting their expenses in a timely and correct manner. This was believed to have been rectified by the players understanding and agreeing to the process and due expenses were to be paid. However, the promised payments (dating back to December) had not be paid at the beginning of this month and therefore the majority of the players have walked out of the club and that was after the manager quit earlier in the year. Since this time the club have failed to fulfil a couple of fixtures (the fact that Hellenic League have made a massive mistake in rescheduling the games rather than awarding points to the opponents is another discussion) and have now managed to scrape a team together to complete the remaining league fixtures but have withdrawn from the Semi-Final of the Aldershot Senior Cup where they were due to play Camberley. It has also been announced that despite some of the players now being paid their expenses back, most of them will not play for Reading Town FC. Additionally the Caretaker Manager will leave at the end of the season alongside the Secretary. The rumour mill has suggested that members of the BWTUC were not overly keen in getting involved in the first place. More details here: http://www.hellenicleague.co.uk/club_news/reading.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beano_ATMFC Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 What I don't understand is how BWTUC ended up with a shareholding in Reading Town in the first place? What does the club have to do with their activities? There's no mention of it on their main website, although there are links to the Workers Beer Company, which has run the bars at Glastonbury for donkey's years and is part of their operation and to the pub they own in Clapham. I knew of BWTUC through Workers Beer Company - I didn't realise they also run Ethical Threads, who produce festival t-shirts. I'd love to know how a Step 5 football club fits into all of that. It's not as if Scours Lane is local to their membership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrence Collina Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 I think Ethical Threads sponsored Reading Town a couple of seasons back so that could be where the link started. Scours Lane's main income is at festival time when it becomes a camp site for the staff at the festival and it has been thought that was the main reaaon BWTUC wanted to get involved. It has since however been mentioned that the festival will no longer use Scours Lane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncs Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 So the Aldershot Senior cup has suffered this season,Frimley Green were unable to field a team in an earlier round and had to forfeit the match to Reading,how ironic the same thing has now happened to Reading and they have had to give the game to Cambo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big J R Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 So the Aldershot Senior cup has suffered this season,Frimley Green were unable to field a team in an earlier round and had to forfeit the match to Reading,how ironic the same thing has now happened to Reading and they have had to give the game to Cambo. Plenty of IRONY in non-league footy, Duncs !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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