A YEAR OF HELL
Mel Morris reveals that Covid played a role in his desire to sell Derby, at a personal loss of £200m. Now he believes football’s model is broken
Without fans who knows what we will be left with as a league
MEL MORRIS buried his best friend last week, a victim of Covid found dead in his bed. As if the Derby County owner needed any more indication that it has been a dreadful 12 months, and could yet get worse for his beloved club and the rest of football.
Today Morris reveals he suffered his own Covid episode for six weeks last year that left him reliant on oxygen, and it was followed by a few unrelated health scares that made him contemplate his mortality and led to his decision to sell the club.
The subsequent takeover saga involving owner-elect Sheik Khaled —an Em ira ti royal who is second cousin to Manchester City’s Sheik Mansour — has left many fans concerned over whether the Sheik will complete his buyout.
But in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, lifelong Derby fan Morris, who turns 65 in the coming week, told this newspaper: The deal to sell to Sheik Khaled is technically still ‘live’ and there remains a ‘contractual obligation’ for Morris to sell and for the Sheik to buy the club. The parties remain in dialogue; His personal investment in Derby since he took control in 2015 is now ‘more than £200million’, and despite that being money he will NEVER recover, he will continue to bankroll the club until ‘a new custodian for this great club’ is in place; He fears for the viability of many EFL clubs if no fans return to stadiums this season or for a large part of the 2021-22 campaign, and believes the Covid pandemic will be the catalyst ‘for major changes to the model of how football works. It’s just a case of when, not if.’
Morris made his fortune, estimated at more than £ 500m, via investments in internet ventures including King, the game developer responsible for Candy Crush.
His years as Derby owner have seen three Championship play-off adventures, including losing in the 2019 final, and backing a series of managers including former England boss Steve McClaren and former England stars Frank Lampard and, currently, Wayne Rooney. Derby began the weekend 22nd before beating Middlesbrough 2-1 yesterday to move up to 19th.
Morris remains a tech investor and philanthropist in many areas, but has seen both his football club and his personal life hit by Covid.
‘ I buried my best friend last Monday,’ he says. ‘He had Covid in October and we thought he’d recovered … but his wife found him dead next to her, two weeks ago last Thursday. That was a big shock. He was a huge character and a big part of my life, a friend and mentor for 30 years. He’d been ill with it, a bad two to three week stretch when he was really poorly. We thought he’d recovered. But of course the damage is still there … and weakens the rest of your system. You go to the crematorium for the funeral and only 30 people are allowed, and no mingling. It’s very hard to cope, for the family particularly.’
Morris believes he was struck down by Covid himself a year ago, although with no testing being done outside of hospitals at the time, there was no formal diagnosis. ‘ It happened as the [pandemic] started raging in February,’ he says. ‘At first I thought it was gastric flu and it lasted for six to seven weeks. I lost about a stone and a half. I had all the classic symptoms of Covid but was never diagnosed. It nearly wiped me out.
‘ I wasn’t in hospital but I had an oxygen machine at home, an oxygen generator rather than a tank, and that was massively helpful. Even now
I’m not 100 per cent but I’ve got a few other health issues as well. I’ve had a few bits chopped off here and there, from my bowel and my back, that haven’t been helpful.’ Morris is married with grownup children and says these episodes contributed to a re-evaluation of how long he could meaningfully contribute to Derby. ‘ Clearly when you have those sort of things, it makes you think,’ he says. ‘You have to hand over [ownership] at some point anyway. And these things focus your mind a lot more.’ Sheik Khaled arrived on the scene last May, when talks began over a buyout. He had previously explored investing in Liverpool in 2018 and Newcastle in 2019.
Morris was happy for negotiations to unfold in secret, and paperwork to formalise a deal was signed in October. At this stage, as the EFL approved the deal, news leaked. Morris has no idea where from, but this forced the club to tell fans what was in the pipeline.
Since then, progress has been slow, prompting assumptions the deal is dead.
‘It’s not finished,’ says Morris. ‘I can’t really talk about it because it’s under a very strict non-disclosure agreement so I can’t give you details on it. But it’s not finished…
‘I don’t like to put percentages on it. There’s a contract between the two of us. That’s in the public domain. There’s a contractual obligation to sell and a contractual obligation to buy. You continue to have dialogue as much as you need to.’
FOR fans worried about the club’s short and mediumterm future, Morris insists he will be around to keep it afloat until a transition to a new owner is complete, whoever that is. ‘Literally every day is spent trying to work out how to improve our situation,’ he says.
The terms of the proposed sale are not public but it is understood that they include covering working capital for this season (£22m) and next ( slightly less), plus taking responsibility for a £ 15m loan. Beyond that Morris personally will get nothing himself immediately, with any other payments, in the low millions, contingent on future success and promotion.
Owning a Championship club is, for most, a loss-making endeavour; the dream for everyone is the top flight, and few get there. ‘Navigating a pandemic is something no previous era has had to deal with,’ says Morris. ‘We haven’t had a fan in the stadium for almost a year.’
He calls the pandemic ‘a dampener on all clubs’. He cites January transfer window business at 25 per cent of last year’s level and explains how clubs like Derby, who need to develop and sell talent to survive, have been hit by the bottom falling out of this market. Against revenue slumps of over 50 per cent, the situation will become desperate for many EFL clubs soon. ‘If there are two seasons, this and next, without fans, then who knows what we’re going to be left with as a league.’
Morris has long argued for structural change in football, fairer TV income distribution, better wage controls, a reboot to the current model that he now sees as inevitable. Despite everything, he says he has no regrets about spending more than £200m on his club. ‘ I don’t believe in having regrets. You do something and you get on with it. Looking backwards never does anyone any good. My focus every single day is to get this club into the best possible position going forward, as it always has been.’
WI T H each passing g a me , Arsenal’s decision to let Emiliano Martinez leave is looking more and more foolish. Aston Villa’s £17million goalkeeper was the reason they did not lose last night.
Come the end of this campaign, Martinez will be up there as a contender for the Premier League’s signing of the season. The super saves aside, we will even give him bravery points for wearing short sleeves on a night as cold as this.
Brighton’s players lined up to have a go and one by one, they saw their shots saved by the magnificent Martinez.
As a result, Villa have beaten their points total from last season. They have 15 games to go to build upon this safety net. Europe? Why not?
Brighton left frustrated, naturally. They unleashed more than 20 shots and on another night, Graham Potter’s players would be heading to their homes with three points to show for their frozen toes. Not this time. Not with Martinez in goal.
One remarkable statistic said Brighton’s last three League wins at home had come in different years — December 2019, June 2020 and January 2021. For all the praise Potter’s style of play has received, t he Seagulls have a habit of flapping at the Amex Stadium.
Failing to convert chances does not help, and they were guilty of that inside the opening 10 minutes.
Brighton should have led after a delicious cross by Joel Veltman found the head of Alexis Mac Allister, but the Argentinian could not keep it below the crossbar.
Villa had a week to prepare for this match — a rare luxury in the
Premier League this season — but were struggling to get going.
The visiting attack were in for a physical match, indicated when 6ft 4in Lewis Dunk flattened 5ft 11in Ollie Watkins and left him writhing in pain. Watkins continued — after some complaining to referee Darren England — and Jack Grealish got a taste, too. The Premier League’s most- fouled player was left on his backside on multiple occasions, with Brighton seemingly figuring that Villa’s captain could not hurt them if he wasn’t on his feet.
After half an hour, Villa had not managed a shot on target, and Watkins ran over to the technical area to change his boots. The £28m striker had struggled to get on the ball.
At the other end, Martinez was showing his value. First he denied Neal Maupay at the near post. Then he stopped a Leandro Trossard shot from finding the top corner.
His best first half save came following a Brighton corner when Dan Burn flicked a header towards goal. It looked on its way in until Martinez pushed it wide.
The pressure on Villa was intense and they were glad to get to half time at 0-0. They had offered nothing in attack. Ross Barkley, playing at No 10, had been anonymous.
Win one, lose one, win one, lose one. Villa had followed a particular pattern over the previous six League matches, and entered this fixture having beaten Arsenal last time out. It was only because of Martinez that they weren’t losing here at the interval.
At the start of the second half, Brighton goal keeper Robert Sanchez had a rare touch of the ball. Perhaps Smith had given Barkley a verbal kick up the backside because he was behind Villa’s first shot on target, though itr was an innocuous effort.
On the hour mark we saw another magnificent save by Martinez. This time Veltman had unleashed a vicious effort which was flying into the back of the net, until the visitors’ goalkeeper pushed it wide. Close, but still no cigar.
Brighton won 2-1 at Villa Park in November, though neither of their goalscorers that day started here. Danny Welbeck was an option on the bench, while Solly March was injured.
Welbeck was introduced for the final 10 minutes as the hosts continued to probe. and drew another fine save from Martinez.
Brighton came into this knowing only Manchester City were on a better unbeaten run in the Premier League. There is no shame in playing second fiddle to a team like Pep Guardiola’s, and they were playing with a swagger against Villa. That they left here disappointed with a draw against a top-half team is a sure sign of their progress.
Just unfortunate for them that Martinez, who made it nine saves by denying Welbeck and Trossard late on, was in one of those moods.