Anton Zingarevich 

Zingarevich took over Reading Football club in the second-half of the Championship title-winning 2011/2012 season. He bought a 51% stake in the club from loved owner Sir John Madejski and left 2 years and 5 months later after leading Reading to their first loss since the 2007/2008 season due to the financial crisis. His reign changed the state of the club in the immediate future.

During Reading’s title charge in the 2nd half of the 2011/12 season, Zingarevich took notice of the club and due to the dramatic influx of billionaire owners in English football, many fans and people at the club thought that he would invest heavily in the club and solidify them as a Premier League regular. 

After a lacklustre January transfer window where a lack of quality was bought in, in 2013, Reading would find themselves relegated in April. However, fans still believed that they could bounce back due to the exciting new manager and the squad who should be very capable of getting promoted. They also expected an increase in investment into the club to bring in higher quality players. Reading had also applied and got a Category One Status Academy, in which the academy has been a consistent and respected area of the club. 

Soon after that, is where it derailed, and Reading were left to fend for themselves. Zingarevich would not have been seen at a Reading game since August 2013, a month before the completion of his takeover was meant to take place. The deadline passed and the takeover fell through due to a lack of funds and an agreement was in place that allowed his father Boris, to help finance the club. Anton had run out of his father’s money.

Reading had failed to gain promotion back in 2013/14 and saw them suffering financially and avoiding a heavy tax bill by selling club-hero/legend Adam Le Fondre to Cardiff in May 2014. 

As of June the same year, it was announced that Zingarevich had left the Reading board and 11 days later, it was official that he had left the club. He left the club in crisis-close to administration- and £38 million in debt which by the end of the year reached a staggering £61 million-, something the club is still struggling to pay-off to this day.

2 years later, a criminal investigation was opened against him due to the suspicion of embezzling a $156 million loan. It was believed that a majority of the loan was sent overseas, meaning that it would undergo as ‘large-scale fraud’.

After Zingarevich left, the 51% stake was bought by a Thai consortium led by Samrit Bunditkitsada, who was later too investigated for money laundering and embezzlement. However, the ownership went to other leaders of the consortium and concluded the Zingarevich era of Reading Football Club. 

Al Jezeera Documentary ‘The Men Who Sell Football’ Analysis- 17:09-19:20

Chris Samuelson, a pronounced “offshore finance expert”, bought Reading Football Club for Anton Zingarevich with the knowledge that it was all his father’s, Boris Zingarevich money.

Boris Zingarevich is a Russian owner of a pulp and paper company, ILIM. Samuelson had asked him to gift the money to Anton to buy the football club after a failed attempt to buy Everton in 2004 where Boris stated that neither he nor Anton would try to purchase a football club. Samuelson cleared Anton for the purchase of Reading, but not Boris, therefore the EFL (the governing body of the English Football League) did not know about the money not being Anton’s in the first place. 

Anton would in 2014 sell the club after proof of no funds to sustain the club, leading them to become a club in crisis and in huge debt.

Gourlay Research

2015- FA cup run

In 2015, Reading got into the FA cup, not only did they get into the FA cup, but they managed to get into the semi-finals where they would be playing arsenal on the 18th of april 2015. During this tense game Arsenal had 73% possession throughout the game so it did not seem like there was much hope for reading to start… Alexis Sanchez scored the first goal for arsenal. But then Gareth Mccleary scores for Reading giving some hope to the fans, then in extra time arsenal scores a jammy goal and wins the game and reading are kicked from the FA cup and arsenal go on to beat aston villa in the final. If Reading had won the FA cup they would have qualified for the following season's UEFA Europa League which is a major step up from the past, they will also become a very well known club.

Reference: https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/reading-fc-1-arsenal-2-11200801 

2017- Ron Gourlay becomes ceo

On 10th july 2017 Ron Gourley is appointed as the CEO of reading, replacing Peter Kenyon. Reading fans were not happy with this and somehow knew he would be the downfall of Reading football club. Reading fans did not think he could run Reading as it is a different type of club compared to the big ones ”The chief executive came in from large enterprises and he didn’t get the culture of Reading. Reading is largely a parochial club, it’s deeply set in the hearts and minds of the community and I don’t think that really penetrated and I think that was where it went wrong in my humble opinion.”

Aftermath

2019-2020

Firstly at the Start of the season Reading signed the following  footballers,  Michael Morrison, Charlie Adam, Rafael, Lexus Beeden, James Holden, Femi Azeez, Augustus McGiff, Werick Caetano, Felipe Araruna, Joseph Ajose. The big two footballers were Lucas Joao costing 5 million and George Puscas costing 7 million. George Puscas is still the record for the most expensive signing Reading have made today. Moving on to the results of the season until the 5 of October till the 18th January was the best part of the season in a whole, with total Goals of 73 including Championship ,the FA Cup and the league cup. The highest top goal scorer of the season was Yakou Meite with 17 goals. The Reading player of the season was Rafael Cabral. 

2021-2022

This season the biggest thing that happened is that the Stadium name changed from The Madejski Stadium to the the Select Car Leasing Stadium, which made reading fans very divided and unhappy. This will also be readings 150th year in existence and 9th consecutive season in the Championship, Reading signed eight players, which was junior Hoilett, Alen Halilovic, Scott Dann, Rashawn Scott, Andy Carroll, Brandon Barker, Ørjan Nyland and Terell Thomas. All these players were also free so there was no money spent on buying players this season. Moving on to the season, Reading lost 25 games and won and draw only 21 games therefore not the best season as they ended 21st, they was also very near to relegation as-well and what made this season even worse is that reading had to deal with points deduction for breaching EFL's rules. The total goals Scored including the championship FA Cup and League Cup was only 54. Finally the player of the month in February was given to Lucas Joao. Overall not at all a good season for reading. 

2022-2023

In Summer Reading had their category one academy status removed, and now is category two, this was not great for reading as they needed new players as they don’t have a big budget at all and really relies on new players from the academy. Moving on to the season reading sign 15 new player which and all the players were free for reading, here is the list: Tom Ince, John Clarke, Michael Craig, Dean Bouzanis, Shane Long, Sam Hutchinson, Nesta Guinness-Walker, Ayyuba Jambang, Ethan Burnett, Josh Green, Adrian Akande, Naby Sarr, Amadou Mbengue, Andy Carroll and Lui Bradbury. So far Reading have won 9 games and lost 10 games and drawn 2 games, so overall the start of the season has been alright for Reading.  

Bibliography

Pickup, S. P. (2019), 'Anton Zingarevich: Five Years On', The Tilehurst End.sbnation

The Tilehurst End News Desk, (2015), 'Howe: Zingarevich Said "Dad Will Give Me A Cheque', The Tilehurst End

Harrison, D. H. (2021), 'How a convicted criminal can buy a famous English football club', Al Jazeera

Smith, A. S. (2016), 'Reading FC: Former Royals owner Anton Zingarevich is the subject of a fraud investigation', Bracknell News

Watts, C. W. (2016), 'Reading FC 1 Arsenal 2: A day to look back on with pride - Charles Watts remembers the 2015 FA Cup semi-final', Get Reading/Berkshire Live

Smith, A. S. (2018), 'Reading FC opinion: Chief executive Ron Gourlay failed to deliver on his promises during his 16 months at the club', The Reading Chronicle

Pickup, S. P. (2018), 'We Need To Talk About Ron Gourlay', The Tilehurst End

Fisher, B. F. (2022), " 'We are worried': How Reading hit crisis point on and off the pitch", The Guardian

Ranson, J. R. (2022), 'Angry Reading fans storm the pitch to confront manager Veljko Paunovic after Coventry defeat - their SEVENTH in a row - amid protests against the owners as crisis engulfs Championship club', Mail Online

Sky Sports News, (2021), 'Reading hit with six-point penalty after breaching EFL rules', Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKnrmf3-QFA

Al Jazeera English, (2021), 'The Men Who Sell Football. Al Jazeera Investigations', Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldgTCXpDEgk&t=1092s