Robert Maxwell, the billionaire media tycoon and one time publisher of the Daily Mirror and
the New York Daily News, moved into football in the early 1980s. In 1982 he had bought and
bankrolled Oxford United, and he had also taken a 19 percent stake in its near neighbour, Reading.
Both teams sat in the third level of English and neither was setting the world alight.
Maxwell had a plan to fix that, though.
On 16th April 1983, while Oxford were playing away at Doncaster,
Maxwell went on BBC Radio Oxford and announced his plan to merge the club with Reading.
"Everything in the world that cannot pay its way must go the way of (the) merger
to combine into stronger units.”
"If we in Thames Valley are to retain a League club we've got to unite Reading and Oxford,"
And the result – in Maxwell’s mind at least - would be the Thames Valley Royals,
a combination of the geographical area and Reading’s nickname
A new stadium somewhere between the two cities was floated - possible
sites included the small town of Didcot and the even smaller town of Wallingford,
which was almost equidistant between the two, but which barely had a population of 10,000 people.
20th April 1983
Not surprsingly, given that Maxwell owned the club outright,
Oxford United's board of directors unanimously backed the idea…only
pausing to suggest that the new club be called "Thames Valley United”.
But the local press, and fans of both clubs were appalled. As Mike Habbits,
chairman of the Reading Supporters Club, said "Our fans can't stand Oxford fans and I can't
see them travelling to Oxford to watch the new team”. The feeling was, of course, mutual.
On the other hand the then chairman of the Football League,
Jack Dunnett, thought it "a bold and imaginative move which I'll be watching with interest”
22nd April 1983
Not everyone thought it was a bold and imaginative move. Roger Smee, who had played fifty games for
Reading in the late 1960s, had been putting his post retirement skills in business to good use.
Reviewing the previous year’s club accounts he saw that Frank Waller, the club chairman, and
his allies on the Reading board didn’t actually have such a firm grip on the club at the time. In
fact, they had only recently acquired control of the club
by issuing additional shares to themselves, a move that Smee thought very illegal.
Teaming up with Roger Tranter, a member of the Reading board
who opposed the merger, they began legal proceedings and got a temporary injunction
from the High court, preventing any further trading in Reading shares.
Maxwell, in typical, high bluster mode, called it a “side show” and said the merger would proceed.
23rd April 1983
Oxford’s first home game since the merger had been proposed saw
2,000 fans stage a sit down protest on the Manor Ground pitch, delaying the
game by half an hour. Banners reading Judas were prominently displayed in front of Maxwell’s seats.
Oxford then beat Wigan 2-0.
25th April 1983
Two days later, though, Maxwell was back on the offensive. In
an interview with BBC Radio Oxford, he said of the protestors:
"If they want to become supporters of someone else, they're entirely welcome,”
And more ominously.
"If the deal does not go through, both Reading and Oxford will be dead before the beginning of next
season…..Nothing short of the end of the earth will prevent this from going through.”
30th April 1983
It appeared the Maxwell was right, with the Reading board,
led by Frank Waller, voting to back the merger proposal.
Later in the day, however, Reading supporters marched from the town centre to their old
Elm Park Stadium home to protest the move, and then watched their team draw 3-3 with Millwall.
2nd May 1983
Then, in a remarkable quirk of scheduling, Oxford and Reading met at Oxford’s Manor Ground.
The home fans held another protest before the game, and then saw their team
lose 2-1 to the visitors, which hardly improved the local mood,
just a short distance from Maxwell’s palatial rented mansion, Headington Hill Hall.
3rd May 1983
Tranter and Smee’s case was heard in the High Court and the judge,
Mr Justice Harman agreed, that the Reading board had acted illegally and issued a
new injunction that prevented any buying or selling of shares in Reading for six weeks
12th May 1983
And, when the Reading board met again, Waller resigned,
with he and his clique returning the disputed unissued shares to the club
The local press was delirious, with the Reading Evening Post gleefully
reporting the end of the road for Maxwell. "We've won! Merger off" read their front page.
14th May 1983
None of this had been helping Reading’s form and on the last day of the season they needed to
beat Wrexham, and for other results to go their way to have any chance of avoiding relegation.
Reading won 1–0, but they went down anyway. Oxford fared much better:
they actually finished 5th, but just missed out on promotion to old second division.
Neither club would go out of business, though. Reading’s shareholders would go
on to vote against the Maxwell bid and, still under Maxwell’s control,
Oxford would actually win successive promotions and also win the league cup in 1986.
Contrary to Maxwell’s claim, a merger hadn’t been necessary. In fact, both clubs outlived him,
after he was found overboard his luxury yacht, just off the Canary Islands in November 1991.