Situation dire but Jackson says it is in control

DERBY County’s joint administrator Carl Jackson has discussed the extent of the club’s financial crisis after alarming figures emerged on Saturday.

The publication of the club’s statement of affairs showed the Rams owe HMRC £29m, while an outstanding loan of £20m MSD Holdings still exists. A further £15m is owed to additional creditors.

In an in-depth interview ahead of the Rams’ 3-2 victory over Bournemouth, Jackson detailed how the administrators are attempting to keep the club going while searching for a buyer.

The Statement of Affairs has been published. How much financial trouble is the club in currently?

“That is the reason we are here. The reason the company has gone into administration, sadly, was because the company was insolvent and the liabilities owed were significantly in excess of the assets.

“We have known about the numbers basically right from the get-go, there has been some reconciling going on, but the company owes a huge amount of money. That is why we are here to effectively restructure that.”

Does the figures make a mockery of the claim that Covid was the main reason behind you guys (the administrators) being here?

“I am not sure it does. Look, Covid has clearly had a major impact.

Whether one can claim that Covid is the sole reason why the club is in difficulty I think is debatable.

“Undoubtedly, Covid has had a significant impact upon Derby – in fairness, as it has done on all football clubs, certainly in the Football League.”

£29m owed to HMRC. How are those discussions progressing?

“We are making some good progress with HMRC. The lion’s share of that debt is what we call preferential, so they have priority which means we have to, and we would do anyway, treat them extremely seriously. “We expect to have some more discussions with HMRC in the next week or two and we really hope they will come to a commercial deal in terms of the proposals we are going to make to them. We are making some good progress.”

Does that remain your biggest concern? Presumably if you can’t agree a deal with them that is potentially game over?

“We will agree a deal. HMRC will recognise that the club is insolvent. They have seen our numbers, we will go back with some more detail, they will know full well the club is not in a position to pay that debt in full but what they will, hopefully, realise is that the offer that is made to them will be better than what they would get in the event the club folded.”

This is the first time this has happened with HMRC as preferred creditors which presumably makes your job tougher?

“Yes it does. The rules of the law changed in January of this year and they are now preferential. What that means is they will have greater influence but, again, the proposal that we will be making to them will be commercially better than what they would get in the event the company goes into liquidation and ceases to trade.”

The company owes a huge amount of money. That is why we are here to effectively restructure that. Carl Jackson

MSD’s £20m loan. What is their position currently?

“MSD have been supportive throughout. They are obviously owed a significant amount of money, they have debenture over the stadium.

“We have maintained a very good dialogue with them, they understand and are supportive of the need effectively to transfer this stadium back into the club once we have landed on a preferred buyer. So we are very happy with the relationship we have with MSD and they have been very sensible.”

Can we assume it is because of MSD you are here in the first place. Did they effectively appoint you guys as administrators?

“They had control over who was appointed as administrators and we have reported to them on a regular basis. They weren’t initially respon

sible for us getting involved but we were in dialogue early on.”

Are MSD willing to remain involved in terms of helping the club out or are they after a straight settlement?

“I think they are open. They are in the business of lending money and the reality is if, once we have found a preferred buyer, they want to use MSD, then there is a conversation there.”

How much have you got left following the cash boost you received?

“We are fine. I have made no secret of the fact cashflow is extremely tight.

“We have managed to sort out some short-term funding, which we did last month. That will keep us or tide us over until early January and we will see how it goes thereafter.

“So we are fine with that. It is very tight, we have obviously had to sadly take some costs out of the business, but we are OK.”