Platek is the fifth potential buyer to enter exclusive talks with Reading in the past 12 months after offers from the former Wycombe owner Rob Couhig, the former Reading chairman Roger Smee and two proposals involving the property magnate Paul Taylor.
The League One club announced on Monday they had entered a “period of exclusivity with a potential purchaser”, who the Guardian has established is Platek, the owner of the Portuguese club Casa Pia.
One executive at another club told the Guardian: “MSD became major lenders during the pandemic and have effective control of several club’s cashflows.
The Football League faces a dilemma over whether to approve a proposed purchase of Reading by the American businessman Robert Platek amid concerns from other clubs over a potential conflict of interest.
Given the sensitivity of the issue to other clubs he will have to demonstrate a clear separation of funding to the EFL, and may have to prove he has no knowledge of other EFL clubs’ financial arrangements with MSD.
