Who is William Storey? The man eyeing Reading FC takeover | OneFootball

Reading owner Dai Yongge is under increasing pressure from the fanbase at the club after the Royals were deducted a further three points from their League One tally last week.

Yongge's failure to deposit 125 per cent of the club's monthly wage bill into a bank account, as decided by an independent commission who investigated the Chinese businesmann's failure to pay wages in full and on time on multiple occasions last season, saw a suspended deduction triggered.

Reading's owner is looking for outside investment to keep the club running smoothly, and former Royals reporter Courtney Friday revealed on Monday that William Storey is a figure that is interested in a potential purchase of the Berkshire outfit and was believed to be in meetings with the club.

Who is William Storey?

Born in September 1978, Storey is a 45-year-old British businessman who has had one big business venture, as well as a move into the sports sponsorship game.

Storey attended the University of St Andrews in Scotland in his youth to study maths and he did own his own Sports Management company years ago, but his most well-known business move has been that of energy drinks company Rich Energy.

He founded Rich Energy in 2015 alongside an unnamed Austrian scientist, and in 2018 they entered into a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Formula One team Haas Racing.

In the Netflix series Drive To Survive, Haas claimed that Rich Energy were supposed to pay £59.7 million worth of sponsorship in their first season - halfway through the 2019 season though the deal was terminated by Rich Energy's side.

Storey and his company did the same thing three years later with British Superbike team OMG Racing by ending an agreement mid-season,

It was also claimed by Storey that he tried to launch a £100 million takeover of the Force India F1 team back in 2019, but that was denied as ever happening by Force India.

Storey had suggested that Rich Energy had been backed by £4 billion worth of endorsements and 90 million cans of his drink had been produced, but there is no proof of this and the fact that the company, renamed as 'Lightning Volt Ltd' was liquidated in 2021 suggests that business wasn't all as it seemed.

The man that is Storey though continues to try and make himself prominent, with his latest move seemingly being to declare his interest in becoming the new owner of Reading.

Has William Storey tried to buy football clubs before?

Two EFL clubs in particular know all about Storey and trying to get involved with their football clubs.

Storey firstly tried to get involved at Sunderland back in 2020, claiming that he had submitted a bid for the Black Cats to then-owner Stewart Donald and had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

In the end, nothing came of that - perhaps to the relief of many Black Cats supporters - with Kyril Louis-Dreyfus later investing in the club instead.

But when it was revealed in 2022 that the Wearsiders were split at boardroom level and Louis-Dreyfus wasn't actually the controlling shareholder, Storey reportedly made another bid to take over with an apparent £42 million offer made.

Again though, nothing ever materialised and later that year, Storey turned his attentions to Coventry City, revealing a week after Doug King's takeover of the Sky Blues last November that he was challenging SISU's sale to him as it breached an exclusivity agreement that he claimed had been signed in October.