The Administration Thread

[MACKWORTHRAM]

4 minutes ago, Rammeister said:

I wouldn’t advocate such nefarious measures, however rumour is, that if click on the link and then very quickly put your phone into ‘airplane mode’ you can read articles behind paywalls.

Not saying I would do that, or did it with the Percy article a few minutes ago.

Lovely bit of advice this

[ThePrisoner]

[curb]

1 hour ago, Archied said:

Thinking about it if the choice is a new afc derby playing at pride park or the rescue of derby county fc our historic club I’ve followed through thick and thin rebuilding and having to play somewhere else until we can build our own stadium or buy pp at a price that doesn’t destroy our club then I’m with the later , I’m of an age where as much as pp is great I still see derby being the baseball ground ,, build a new baseball ground 

Don’t you think though, that the club now, and football in general, is nothing like what we grew up loving as kids. Who cares about the corporate monster that it’s become, with its endless pitch side adverts, paying lip service to SKY for peanuts.

Weve got our memories of those days, they can bastardise the game as much as they want, but they’ll never take those away.

Make a new club, make new memories, duck the EFL.

[plymouthram]

29 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Ok so I'm reading Percy's tweet as EFL haven't been told yet of any bidders, as if they had they would have leaked it to him and Nixon. I see that as no bidders have put an appropiate bid in (meeting football debt, whatever is Q's agreed repayment with the HMRC, x% non football debt and have enough left over to meet the owners desire of owning the stadium for what they are paying). As it proved incredibly taxing emotionally this last (wafts hand) number of months and given existing poor health I started my grieving process some time ago, I've said my goodbyes, and shed my tears leaving Pride Park. I hoped it was me overreacting in self defence but it's looking likely if this is true.

Sounds like it is the stadium, that is the latest block. I struggle to see how Morris can see the stadium as viable without a club, he cant get Zach Parker to box fortnightly. Plus a pheonix club will likely be non league and look to groundshare for maybe a decade or more, until they get to a level that they can even consider utilising and maintaining a stadium that size. So what will he do? He is a cold businessman there has to be a plan b for him. I'd love to know what that plan b is.

 

 

I reckon the other business people (The bidders) are playing Russian roulette with him. They want to buy the club and they want the stadium in the deal. Mel is pulling the strings with the Aministrators who he chose and obviously is after the best deal. The stumbling block for the possible new owners is also the other debts. They know if Mel does not sell the club and the Rams are liquidated he has a large stadium with no football team to use it. I would'nt be surprised if Appleby or Ashley get a cheap purchase due to Mel needing to save face and save his beloved club. There is no plan B. Or is there, is he part of the alleged 3rd bidding consortium.

[Flying Fokker]

Some comments from readers of the telegraph article: 

MC

Mark Connolley14 MIN AGO

As a Coventry fan, I thought our situation was the worst.

I really feel for Derby a venerable and proud club. It’s times like this you realise glory isn’t important

CM

Cooper Martyn23 MIN AGO

PP holds over 33,000. Has it ever been more of a white elephant? HMRC have to be paid back 1st as that is public money.

SD

Simon Dunkerley30 MIN AGO

The whole situation is extremely sad and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

SH

Stephen Hawkes1 HR AGO

And still no accounts submitted ( now 3 years overdue)

JM

Jason McGarry46 MIN AGO

You will have a much longer wait as well because firms in administration are not required to publish accounts. In essence they will never be published.

CR

Cheshire Red1 HR AGO

How are these situations allowed to begin in the first place?

The EFL is negligent on duty; they KNOW football attracts greedy chancers and the vain, with financial behaviour to match, yet clearly are not doing enough to stop these problems before they get serious.

Evidence includes Coventry, Bolton, Macclesfield Town, Derby, Bury and so on. That's far too many for the governors of English football to escape their share of culpability.

Clubs finances MUST be put under stricter rules to prevent individual clubs actually going out of business.

11 older reply

SHOW OLDER REPLIES

SH

Stephen Hawkes57 MIN AGO

So MM is willing to sell Pride Park. Guess it won't be close to the £80 million 'valuation' placed on it to swerve FFP. Will be interesting to see when or if ever Derby produce their accounts that they have included the £4 million plus annual rent payments that were agreed when PP was sold.

JM

Jason McGarry43 MIN AGO

EFL is partly to blame because most EFL clubs actually have debts equal to or greater than Derby's. Clubs are spending insane amounts on wages / transfers and others will go bust over the next few years as their owners walk away. A bug bear of mine is clubs being allowed to pay transfer fees over several years as it encourages stupid spending. If a club wants to buy a player for £5M they should be made to pay it up front.

 

 

[Rev]

30 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

The club itself definitely owes MSD at least £20m, it’s listed in the statement of affairs from mid November.  I’d be surprised if Morris owes another £20m personally on top of that.  My best guess is that Morris has put the stadium, and some other non-club-related assets, up as collateral. So if the club doesn’t pay up, MSD get the stadium + whatever else.  Morris presumably just wants a clean break - he doesn’t want some kind of situation where he gives the stadium back to the club, the club doesn’t pay MSD and they come after his other assets.  And likewise, any new owners won’t want the situation where they have the stadium (even if given for free) but Morris still has something secured against it.  It needs to be dealt with completely.

Thanks, that's pretty clear and useful, your grasp on the situation is similar to mine I'd suggest, but you've expressed it so much better, damn my education!

What I meant to say is that Mel has offered security on the £20m DCFC owe to MSD, not that he owes it himself personally. 

The bidders want him to clear that debt, and for him to then return the stadium and all other club assets debt has been secured against, before proceeding with a bid, would you agree?

 

[Alty_Ram]

Well, that makes pretty bleak reading.

I think I'm just going to have to switch off from this for a bit because I'm struggling to see any real possibility of a positive outcome and it's starting to affect my general mood ?

[curb]

1 minute ago, plymouthram said:

I reckon the other business people (The bidders) are playing Russian roulette with him. They want to buy the club and they want the stadium in the deal. Mel is pulling the strings with the Aministrators who he chose and obviously is after the best deal. The stumbling block for the possible new owners is also the other debts. They know if Mel does not sell the club and the Rams are liquidated he has a large stadium with no football team to use it. I would'nt be surprised if Appleby or Ashley get a cheap purchase due to Mel needing to save face and save his beloved club. There is no plan B. Or is there, is he part of the alleged 3rd bidding consortium.

His beloved club?

Would you like to review and edit that comment?

[Ram a lamb a ding dong]

I sense bidders will pull out. If (and when) that is goodnight Vienna.

I am now 98% certain we are screwed. Get ready all for AFC Derby. After the recent shambles it might actually be refreshing to start again. 

MM then doesn't have to be mentioned ever again  and his ground can rot

 

[Tyler Durden]

9 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

Ok I do not know what is going on but I think it fair to say that the bids have not met Quantuma's valuation of the club and we may be facing a further penalty point deduction or worse.

It seems crazy given that we do have buyers willing to pay serious money for us.. but due to EFL rules and / or Mel Morris intransigence we could be pushed to extinction. So our future lies in the hands of the two parties who have let us down so badly so far.

So I'm saying to them both..  do not duck this up, this is your last chance you duckers.

 

Not sure what it's got to do with the EFL at all? 

The rules about administration are pretty transparent it's either up to buyers to meet that amount to avoid a further points deduction or Morris to lower his asking price for the stadium. 

Not sure why you keep insisting that it's the EFLs fault or the Covid virus when it's patently clear whom the architect of our potential destruction is. 

[i-Ram]

Mel Morris, having some negative influence on the sale? Well, who would have thought it possible?

[Rev]

1 hour ago, davenportram said:

If buyers aren’t willing to rent the stadium MM must be offering to charge a large fee - as maintenance and running cost would be his responsibility

That's not necessarily the case.

It's perfectly possible to lease a commercial property and have the responsibility for maintenance and running cost fall on the tenant, rather than the owner.

[Crewton]

5 minutes ago, Rev said:

That's not necessarily the case.

It's perfectly possible to lease a commercial property and have the responsibility for maintenance and running cost fall on the tenant, rather than the owner.

Maybe we can get the taxpayer to pay the maintenance and stewarding costs, like West Ham do?

[DCFC1388]

Nixon saying we need Mel to pay 5m minimum to MSD towards the loan

[plymouthram]

8 minutes ago, Ram a lamb a ding dong said:

I sense bidders will pull out. If (and when) that is goodnight Vienna.

I am now 98% certain we are screwed. Get ready all for AFC Derby. After the recent shambles it might actually be refreshing to start again. 

MM then doesn't have to be mentioned ever again  and his ground can rot

 

Will we ground share with Mickleover Sports or Belper or Matlock.

[hintonsboots]

Just now, DCFC1388 said:

Nixon saying we need Mel to pay 5m minimum to MSD towards the loan

 

[duncanjwitham]

6 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

Not sure why you keep insisting that it's the EFLs fault or the Covid virus when it's patently clear whom the architect of our potential destruction is. 

As far as I’m concerned it’s the combination of factors that’s killed us.  Without the EFL investigation dragging on for years, especially with the nonsense over the stadium sale, we probably get sold 2 years ago. The admins reckon COVID has cost us £30m-£40m of income, without that loss, we probably don’t end up in admin.  And you can find any number of things to pin on Morris.  Any 2 of those and we’re probably OK, but all 3 at the same time…

[eccles the ram]

Friday 1st April is pivotal in the history of DCFC from what has been written by Percy et al. If it transpires we don't have a PB that comes up to the valuation (and it seems that may be the case)and Q have gone to the nth degree, then MM and Pearce will be the most despised people not only in Derby and Derbyshire but in homes all across the country, and around the world. Chelsea takeover will be put in the background whilst our demise will be all over Sky. Money, as so many have said in the past, has ruined this beautiful game. Greedy agents and some greedy players have taken our money and run. Very very sad tonight for everyone affected, including my son and myself. It's like sitting at the side of a bed where you are watching someone so precious to you ebbing away in front of eyes and you can't do anything about it. Please Mel DON'T LET THIS MAGNIFICENT CLUB DIE - I BEG YOU!!!

[BramcoteRam84]

46 minutes ago, Rammeister said:

I wouldn’t advocate such nefarious measures, however rumour is, that if click on the link and then very quickly put your phone into ‘airplane mode’ you can read articles behind paywalls.

Not saying I would do that, or did it with the Percy article a few minutes ago.

Worked an absolute treat!! Genius!

[PistoldPete]

31 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

Not sure what it's got to do with the EFL at all? 

The rules about administration are pretty transparent it's either up to buyers to meet that amount to avoid a further points deduction or Morris to lower his asking price for the stadium. 

Not sure why you keep insisting that it's the EFLs fault or the Covid virus when it's patently clear whom the architect of our potential destruction is. 

You think the 15 point deduction is automatic? And transparent? Well I cannot see that in the rules. Where does it say that?   Or that the creditors would be happy about a 15 point deduction if it wrecks our financial plans? Take away the threat of a 15 point deduction (or worse) and you take away an existential threat. It is perfectly within the power of the EFL to do that.