Administrators: January is now likely timescale for new owners
PRIDE PARK STADIUM WILL BE INCLUDED IN SALE, TALKS WITH HMRC ARE ONGOING
DERBY County’s administrators say the sale of the club may now not go through until January.
Carl Jackson, one of the joint administrators from Quantuma, has said the parties interested in purchasing the club remain at the table despite the most recent points deduction.
The Rams have been hit by a further nine-point penalty taking the total punishment to 21 points and this has left them bottom of the Championship on minus three points and facing the realistic prospect of relegation to League.
In an interview with RamsTV, Jackson, also issued an update on the time frame of a possible takeover.
“What we said was wouldn’t it be wonderful to get everything wrapped up by the end of December. I think in reality it is going to drift into January,” Jackson said. “Our timescales haven’t drifted that much but because the EFL discusssions, negotiations, call it what you will, has gone on for a fairly long time, inevitably other discussions always take slightly longer. But we are still hoping and expecting to complete a successful restructure sometime in January. We hope to make significant progress over the next three to four weeks.” Asked if the interested parties are still at the table, Jackson said: “Yes. The credible parties we are currently engaging with have always been very realistic, we have always been very open with them in terms of the position with the EFL, not that they didn’t know anyway, again it has been reasonably well documented.
“I think there has always been an expectation that there would be potentially further points deducted and as a result of that a possibility the club could get relegated to League One. As a result of this it hasn’t had any negative impact upon the interest we have received.”
It has been reported that the club owes HMRC around £26m and discussions are ongoing.
“We still have to deal with a significant liability to HMRC but again early discussions with them are positive, albeit at this point in time we have not got them to agree to our proposals,” Jackson added.
“But they have not rejected our proposals. We have an ongoing dialogue with them.”
On the situation with Pride Park Stadium, which is owned by former owner Mel Morris, Jackson was asked if the stadium would be included in the sale of the club.
“Yes. Our position has not changed there at all,” Jackson said.
“We would expect that once we have effectively landed on a preferred purchaser for the club, that preferred purchaser will also acquire the stadium.
“So the two are joined again. That has not changed, and we don’t expect it to change.”
We are still hoping and expecting to complete a successful restructure sometime in January. Carl Jackson , one of the joint administrators from Quantuma