Reading Women set to drop out of Championship after takeover falls through

An 11th-hour bid to take over Reading’s women’s team and fund them to stay in the Championship has fallen through, Guardian sport understands, all but ensuring the team will not participate in the second tier of the English pyramid.

According to sources, a consortium made an approach last week to buy the women’s team and maintain them in the Championship, after news emerged of the their plight. Because of that approach, it is understood a one-week extension was granted to Reading by the Football Association to give the women’s club more time to confirm whether they intend to participate in the Championship.

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But that potential takeover is believed to be off the cards because of uncertainty around the future ownership of the wider club.

Reading have until 5pm on Friday to inform the FA and the leagues as to which level of the women’s pyramid they intend to field a team next term, if at all, amid growing fears the women’s and girls’ programme may be forced to fold. Players and staff have been anxiously waiting for news for weeks.

It is believed Reading have two most-likely scenarios in front of them, to be determined as a matter of urgency on Friday: to drop into the fourth tier as essentially an amateur setup, or for the women’s programme to be closed down. Neither leaves much hope for the future of the girls’ academy, which is understood to be at risk of closure because of financial constraints.

Guardian Sport revealed on 18 June that the women’s team’s Championship status was in major doubt and that the girls’ academy could close, and parents of academy players launched a petition to try to save the women’s and girls programme, which has received more than 4,000 signatures.

According to multiple sources close to last season’s squad, the players and staff have been “completely in the dark” about the team’s future since the end of the season, and many are understood to have found this summer’s nervous wait for news highly stressful, disappointed at a lack of internal communication from Reading’s owners.

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Asked what was going on at the club, the Wales midfielder and Reading vice-captain Charlie Estcourt told BBC Radio Berkshire last Saturday: “It’s a good question. I think we are all asking ourselves the same thing. We haven’t heard too much directly from the club. We’ve seen what everyone else has seen, on Twitter, on Sky. And it doesn’t sound good, like, no kits being ordered for pre-season, threats of us dropping down to tier four or there not being a side at all, so it’s worrying times.”

Estcourtsaid labelled the prospect of the team and academy no longer continuing as “devastating” and added: “The communication from all levels, unfortunately, has been really poor. For me personally, one of the most disappointing things about the whole situation is, we’ve just been left completely in the dark. It’s people’s livelihoods, it’s their jobs, it’s not just us at the first team, it’s all the staff. The whole women’s setup has been left completely in the dark.

“There have been whispers about it [the team not being able to continue in the Championship] for a while but I never really took them seriously. I didn’t think there was any substance behind these rumours. But as the off-season has gone on and we haven’t heard anything and [still] we haven’t heard anything, it feels like it’s becoming very real.”

Reading have a proud record in women’s football in the modern era, punching above their weight to finish fourth in the top flight in 2018 and secure back-to-back fifth-placed finishes in 2019 and 2020. They were also FA Cup semi-finalists in 2019 and have helped bring through stars such as the England forward Fran Kirby.

Reading were competing in the Women’s Super League as recently as May 2023 but reverted to part-time status 12 months ago after their relegation on the final day. Reading finished 10th in the Championship last season, one place and six points above the relegation zone.