Takeover completed – end of Madejski era

After many long and confusing months, the completion of the Thai takeover has officially been confirmed.

Sir John Madejski released a statement yesterday confirming the takeover, also stating he no longer has a shareholding in the club, for the first time since he bought the club in 1990. He will however remain co-chairman with Khunying Sasima, who has 25% ownership of the club.

An official statement on the Reading FC website reads:

‘I am delighted to announce that, following confirmation from the Football League, our new Asian consortium partners are now in place at Reading FC. After months of tireless hard work and a lot of speculation, I am very pleased to say that Reading Football Club’s future has been resolved.’

‘Since the Zingarevich family left, we have engaged with a number of different prospective investors, but we have now succeeded in finding who I believe are the right people to take this club forward. I am honoured to be staying on as Co-Chairman at the Club I love.’

The whole statement is certainly worth a read, as it seems Madejski is hinting at the end of an era and the start of a new one with the Thai’s. Very humbling and professional words from a fantastic individual, who has done himself and this club very proud over the past 24 years.

Onto the new investors and two new names that have crept up are Khun Narin Niruttinanon, who is the majority owner with 50%, and Khun Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth, with the other 25%. The formee leader of the original consortium, Samrit Bunditkitsada, is completely unmentioned.

Could Samrit have been holding the deal up? Maybe the Football League were not too impressed by him, as he was involved before and not since they did their testing. I’m sure some light will be shed on that in the coming days, but all that matters is we are going forward in good hands.