04 December 2023 , 06:56
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Reading boss Ruben Selles and head of football operations Mark Bowen have both forfeited their own wages in order to ensure staff at the stricken League One club are paid.
The Royals are currently embroiled in a financial crisis that has already seen them deducted four points this season, leaving them second-bottom in League One. The situation has worsened over the past week.
Reading prioritised paying their players over staff in order to avoid yet another points deduction. Staff only received 50 percent of their monthly wage packets.
Selles - appointed as the club’s manager in the summer - as well as chief Bowen, have made the extraordinary call of delaying their own pay in order to see staff paid in full. “There was not enough funding coming into the club this month to pay the wages in full,” the latter announced.
“The chief executive made a decision to pay the players and stop us getting another points deduction and there was a percentage paid to the rest of the staff. Myself and Ruben decided we would forfeit all our wages until the staff are paid in full. We've been told the funds will arrive and everything will be settled by early next week.”
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Fans protested once more during Reading’s late FA Cup defeat to non-league side Eastleigh at the weekend. Tennis balls and fake money were thrown onto the pitch before a 94th-minute sucker punch saw them eliminated from the competition.
Ahead of the game, Selles hit out at the decision not to pay staff in full. “We are in a position we don’t want to be,” the Spaniard said.
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“Unfortunately the CEO made the decision to pay the players fully and only partially the staff because of the financial situation of the club. Strategically, we can understand because we don’t get a points deduction but the human and moral things, we know it’s not the correct thing to do but it’s not my call and myself and the staff don’t get what they deserve for the hard work they put in.”
The former Southampton coach also took aim at the English Football League and suggested a revamp of their own rules to ensure that the situation is not repeated elsewhere. He added: “The EFL needs to review their rules because they do it in order to have control of the clubs and the ownership but the reality is they are taking out 75 per cent of the workers of Reading Football Club.
“Not only in the case of Reading, but other football clubs. We all as workers of Reading football club want the best for the team and these things don’t help us to speak only about football.”