Announcing his takeover on a night of Reading’s triumphant Championship play-off semi-final in May 2017, Dai Yongge's ownership was supposed to take the Royals to a new level.

Well, he's certainly fulfilled his prophecy. Unfortunately, that level was down...and very nearly out.

The turbulent seven years of Chinese ownership have seen the club become a laughing stock. Things have become so bad that rival supporters aren't even having a joke now, they're offering sympathy and pity.

A latest low in this saga was hit on Saturday, as thousands of supporters invaded the pitch against Port Vale and got the game abandoned in a cry for help to the rest of the world.

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As the widespread national and international media coverage has proven, the protest worked.

But, how did it get to this point? Strap in everyone, it's a bumpy ride.

Pre-Dai Yongge Era

Following 20 years of virtually only elevation under the careful stewardship of Sir John Madejski, the start of this fall from grace goes back beyond Yongge, and even beyond his predecessors.

Anton Zingarevich, the son of a Russian oligarch, took over from Sir John Madejski in 2012 and was the owner for one whole season while the Royals pit their wits against some of the best teams in the world as a Premier League team.

Running up debts before running away, Sir John took back the reigns and staved off the administrators over a decade ago before steadying the ship and selling on to a consortium from Thailand.

Lady Sassima - and her notorious 'They Call Us The Royals' song - came to the club in 2014 and began phase one of asset stripping, separating the then Madejski Stadium from the land surrounding it.

Selling the club less than two years later, this piece of land was crucial to the consortium as the group planned to convert the site to flats and an ice rink (which are now finally making their way through the planning system).

And so here is where the current story begins.

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Dai Yongge Era

Reading fans believed all their Christmases came at once when Yongge took over. The businessman certainly put his money where his mouth is and splashed the cash, twice breaking the club's transfer record.

Turning down large sums of money for their best players, offering them bumper deals in return for staying put, seemed a key part of his business operations. The likes of Ron Gourlay, Nigel Howe and Dayong Pang became his voice on the ground in Berkshire.

Funding the club all through the COVID-19 pandemic and building Bearwood Park, which is now considered one of the best training facilities in the country, all signs seemed to point towards success.

Except on the pitch. Only one top-half finish followed and the EFL's Profit and Sustainability regulations were not too fond of the club's salary spending, which nearly doubled their entire income.

Unsurprisingly, the law came stamping down on the Royals in 2021/22 when the EFL charged the club with breaches of its financial regulations.

November 17, 2021, saw the club first punished for off-field matters, with a six-point deduction dropping Veljko Paunovic's side near to the Championship relegation zone.

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Sacking the Serbian in February, former England captain Paul Ince helped keep the club up in the second tier that season.

The following season proved difficult, following the exit of starman John Swift, but the Royals were ticking along toward safety.

Eyebrows were raised in the winter of 2022 when staff were not paid on time for November or December, an issue put down to Bank Holidays in China and struggling to get money out of the country. Both solved quickly, but it was an early red flag of what was to come.

Throughout the campaign, there was a dark mist lingering overhead, thickening as the season neared its conclusion and financial results were revealed.

In exchange for only being awarded a six-point deduction in 2021, the club had to adhere to a business plan from the EFL, stipulating maximum losses and proving what had been done to try and become more sustainable.

News broke in March that the Royals were in breach of this, and on April 14, 2022, a six-point deduction plunged the team into the relegation zone.

Failing to win another game after this, Ince lost his job and Reading were relegated by just one point. 

To add insult to injury, staff again had to wait for their wages in April as the funds were not in place come payday.

Yongge had taken Reading into League One for the first time in 22 years - a 'new level.'

And so to this season, and the cataclysmic build-up to a fresh start in a new league.

Without a manager, or enough players to field a team, until July...it was not the most effective preparation for a new season.

Cash injections from China dried up and the club spent the summer dipping in and out of EFL transfer embargoes for either failing to pay staff and/or His Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

July saw the club hit with a winding-up petition by HMRC for non-payment of tax, a third under the stewardship of Yongge. Another was to follow in November.

On-field matters fell into insignificance for a large proportion of the fanbase, with Ruben Selles and his hotchpotch squad remaining competitive at the bottom end of the third tier.

They were not helped by their employer, however, whose financial decisions saw the club hit with another four-point deduction in August and September for failing to do what the EFL asked him to do. 

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A backdrop to all of this unrest was supporter rebellion. Set up in June 2023, the campaign group 'Sell Before We Dai' organised a series of protests that brought the issues in RG2 to the mainstream.

The threat of yet more point deductions remains, with a charge for paying HMRC late on too many occasions still hanging over the club.

From being difficult in potential takeover negotiations to selling the team's best players, an already relegation-threatened team looks doomed to be relegated to the fourth tier for the first time in more than 40 years...and that's if the club even survives that long.

So, a new level? That's certainly one way to describe the cruel tyranny being inflicted on the fourth-oldest professional football club in the country.