Madejski seeks sanity in a mad, mad world

Reading's benefactor keeps bankrolling his club. He tells Nick Townsend that players must be realistic

One commentator recently referred to him as Prudence, a man whose chairmanship of First Division Reading makes Gordon Brown look like Viv Nicholson. No Spend, Spend, Spend! for John Madejski, despite his club's proximity to the Premiership and a personal wealth that casts him, according to latest estimates, as Britain's 126th richest man.

Madejski's stewardship, you suggest to him, is a glowing example of how to run a successful club. "Well, we still dumped a million quid last season so it wasn't that tight," he says grimly. "And then there was the ITV Digital débâcle, which meant I had to find another 580 grand in bonuses when we were promoted to the First Division."

The fact that Madejski still finds it necessary to write regular cheques to bankroll a successful team who boast attendances of between 15,000 and yesterday's 20,000-plus full house against leaders Portsmouth tells us everything about the game's financial woes. One can only imagine the state of those lower league clubs without the benefit of such a benefactor and gates considerably below 10,000.

It is in such an environment that Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon entered the debate last week and submitted that the only solution is "semi-professional" football for all but a 40 or so elite. "There are too many clubs," he said on Radio Five Live's special report The Bankrupt Game. "That's not to say that they can't exist, but they can't all be professional."

He probably won't get much thanks for his analysis, particularly from those who may sneer that his own club's preparedness to agree mega-deals with the Beckhams and Keanes has been, in part, responsible for dragging players' wages ever upwards.

However, it is certainly unrealistic salaries, Madejski believes, that have created the crisis. Resolve that, and the current 92 can continue to exist on a full-time basis. Fail, and the part-time era for many will become inevitable. "If there's been a silver lining in the ITV Digital affair," he says, "it is that contracts are going to have to be renegotiated at a level that clubs can sustain. At long last the players are going to have to be reasonable about their demands. You can't just keep paying exhorbitant sums that nobody can afford.

"Also at the lower levels, you have to ask whether the man in the street will be prepared to continue paying his money through the turnstiles to support those players' wages. Probably the answer is 'no'. Players, for too long, have been paid far too much despite the fact that clubs are losing money right, left and centre. If that doesn't reverse then, yes, there will be part-time football clubs."

Madejski adds: "We are a well-run club here and that's because we have businesses which support the football, including a burgeoning hotel. Fortunately that does very well and produces good profits, but most of them flood straight back to the players. It's a crazy business."

Kenyon's observations have, if nothing else, at least provoked a debate on an issue that affects not just the smaller English clubs, but some in the Premiership as well as the leviathans across Europe. In Italy's Serie A, for example, 88 per cent of turnover goes on wages. On average in this country, 66 per cent of turnover is outlayed on players' salaries which, it doesn't take a financial guru to demonstrate, is too much.

A Football League working party is currently consulting clubs over a proposal for players' salary-capping, with the suggestion that initially clubs should spend no more than 60 per cent on players' wages. That figure would eventually be reduced to 50 per cent.

Leeds's vice-chairman, Alan Leighton, believes that all clubs should voluntarily take things a stage further. The man who was responsible for the restructuring of Asda and who is now chairman of the Royal Mail has argued vociferously for performance- related pay for players. Salaries would be paid taking into account appearances and the success of the team, with a considerably lower basic than at present.

"Such a system wouldn't take away from players the possibility of earning good money when the side is successful, but when it's not they share in the pain," he says.

Leighton and Madejski are clearly kindred spirits in their attitude towards costs. Caution is Madejski's byword and, although the Royals' supporters are starting to speculate about promotion, Madejski will not entertain any extravagant signings in an attempt to maximise that possibility. It has even been reported that the Reading chairman will not agree new contracts with his manager Alan Pardew and no fewer than 12 players until his club have secured the four victories that should guarantee another season in the First Division. Circumspect, indeed, considering that before yesterday's contest with leaders Portsmouth his team stood fifth, with 38 points.

In fact, he claims that his utterances on the subject have been somewhat misconstrued, and he is already negotiating a proposed new three-year contract with Pardew. Promotion, Madejski insists, would be "a luxury problem". Only then would he contemplate such additions as Matthew Upson, the Arsenal defender who played his last game on loan for Reading yesterday. Under the regulations players over 23 can only go out on loan for a maximum of three months. At present, there was no chance of signing him permanently.

"Whether you look at the salary or probable signing-on fee they're out of our league," says Madejski. "Of course, if we were in the Premiership it's something we could look at. But there's no way we're going to bust the budgets this year. I'm fed up with playing that game."

Much of football will endorse that final sentiment.