Yesterday in Parliament I raised the campaign to #SaveDerbyCounty again.
It is crucial that the administrators and the EFL use this month to overcome the issues preventing the sale of the club – and not to wait until the deadline is once again approaching.
Please see below my latest column on Derby County FC, published in today's Derby Telegraph:
The death of Derby County is utterly unthinkable.
That was my abiding thought as I marched with nine thousand fellow Rams fans from the city centre to Pride Park on Sunday.
The campaigners represented the heartbeat of the football club. Supporters whose families have attended matches for generations.
Derby County has been at the centre of the community for 138 years and fans have made it clear that it must be saved.
Indeed, if its future rested on the passion of its supporters, it would have been secured long ago.
However, it lies in the hands of the English Football League, the club’s administrators and any potential bidders for ownership.
Its debts are considerable but the glimmer of light comes from the fact that there are those who are willing to take the club forward.
But these bidders would not be prepared to satisfy substantial claims made by Middlesbrough and Wycombe for compensation based on Derby being above them in the league when it was breaking financial fair play rules.
Middlesbrough’s case would appear to be particularly fanciful as it is based on a supposition that it would have been promoted if it had been in the play-off places instead of Derby in 2019.
Until now, league rules have seen points deductions for transgressions of fair-play rules and clubs going into administration.
The is no doubt that Derby broke rules and has accepted points deductions which will likely see the club relegated.
But no precedent has been set for other clubs to claim compensation.
So, it is bewildering why the EFL is effectively seeing these demands from Middlesbrough and Wycombe as anything but spurious.
Its management’s persistence in its view that they should be considered football debts and demand proof of funds that they could be paid completely undermines any hope that new owners can be found.
It is an incomprehensible stance because if the latter were the case Derby County would go out of business and, consequently, there would be no payments to anyone and the league would be left without a founder member.
During the past month, I have been involved in many meetings with the EFL, the club’s administrators and a highly-motivated group of businesses and leaders from Derby who are fighting for the club.
I also prompted a debate in the House of Commons after posting an urgent question on The Rams’ future.
We did manage to push for an extension for the club's survival until the end of February but even that gives us little time.
Meanwhile, I have been consistently worried that the EFL representatives are not on the same page as us.
Spinning around my head have been the words of James Daly MP who was involved in the ultimately doomed fight to try to save his local club, Bury.
He said: “When that process happened, the English Football League did not care.
“It did not care about any of the thousands of fans who were impacted by its decision to expel the club from the league.”.
It strikes me, therefore, that now is its chance to show itself in a more positive light.
I appeal to it to work with me and the Derby MPs and stakeholders to sit at a table with the administrators and Middlesbrough and Wycombe and hammer this out, however long it takes.
No more mealy-mouthed half-promises. No more verbal swerves and playing silly games.
No more relying on others to find a way out.
Now is the time for the EFL to prove it is fit for purpose and work with us to save Derby County.
