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Reading FC Co-Chairman To Move Into Rugby League?

This one comes as a bit of a surprise but Sir John Madejski has been linked with buying a struggling Rugby League side.

Reading v Blackburn Rovers   - Sky Bet Championship Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

While his role at Reading has been slowly fading after successive takeovers, Co-Chairman Sir John Madejski could be about to thrust himself back into the limelight by buying former Super League Champions Bradford Bulls. The Rugby League side are once again in administration after struggling since relegation from the top tier of the game and now Sir John is reportedly one of three or four parties interested with helping to save the club.

So could it happen?

Well the former Reading owner is known for his charitable efforts, not least with saving our own very club in the early 90’s but has gone on to help local charities, educational institutions and more. Not having a background in the sport wouldnt seem much of a problem either, given he's admitted on numerous occasions that he knows little about football and that didn't stop him from running Reading for two-decades.

Whether he has the spare funds to support a club who’ve been losing seven figure sums is another question, however it does look like he may have had some of his loans from Reading re-paid by the Thai consortium so it's possible he's got some spare money around. While Bradford’s losses are big for the sport, they’re not in the realms of a Championship football club.

Personally I'll file this under unlikely but perhaps if the new ownership group want him gone for good he still wants to be around the buzz of a sports team.