England captains Gary Neville and Alan Shearer were among the big name footballers to speak out on the crisis at Reading Football Club following their abandoned match on Saturday.

Over 1,000 supporters invaded the pitch on Saturday against Port Vale in protest against owner Dai Yongge, getting the match called off after an hour on the grass.

Gaining national headlines in all media formats, huge sports stars from around the country are giving their support to Royals fans.

Neville, the Manchester United legend who is a much-loved pundit on Sky Sports, used his platform to send his thoughts to Reading.

"What it shows is that fans, and we’ve seen it over the last few years, will stand up for what they believe is right and they’re not going to accept these types of things anymore," he said on his podcast. "We need that regulator and the situation resolving so that we can get some control in the game and some power in the right hands. It seems that the fans are helpless to be able to solve these situations. It deserved a mention, my heart and thoughts are with Reading fans who are feeling desperate. You should feel like that for your football team, but there should be a resolution."

Peter Drury, his main commentator, added: "A really good football club, recently in the Premier League. Proper fans, for their town, and it's feeling pain at the moment. Good luck to the Mighty Royals."

Reading Chronicle:

Former England teammate Shearer, the Premier League's record goal scorer, was asked about the topic on Gary Lineker's The Rest of Football podcast.

"They’ve had enough," he said. "They’ve seen their club relegated, they’ve seen their club docked points, they’ve seen other clubs that the owner has had go to the wall. They fear that will happen to them too. What else can they do? They’ve got to make their point, so I’m with them. They were docked points because they’re not paying the salaries of people at the football club, people are being made redundant left, right and centre. They’re at the end of their tether."

Micah Richards, a former Premier League winner and popular pundit, added: "Power to the people. Go on there and protest, because something needs to change."

Jeff Stelling, formerly a Sky Sports presenter and now the host of the TalkSPORT breakfast show, spoke from the heart considering he endured similarly difficult periods with his team, Hartlepool United.

"You’d never advocate supporters going on the pitch, but I tell you what, it was the right thing to do," he said to Ally McCoist. "Look at the coverage of their plight that those Reading fans have got. They are desperate and want him expelled as an owner- they can see their club being liquidated and going the same way as the clubs in China and Belgium that Yongge has owned in the past, they were dissolved and don’t exist anymore. In desperation, they’ve gone on the pitch. They don’t care about points deductions, that doesn’t matter, what they care about is their club and the future. If anybody is a Premier League supporter and doesn’t think it matters to us because it’s the EFL, Reading were in the Premier League just over 10 years ago. We can’t afford to let Reading go the same way as Bury and Macclesfield."