April 19 – There are teams that fall from grace. And then there is Derby County.
Twice top-flight champions, Derby were demoted to the third tier of English football for the first time in 37 years on Monday, ultimately unable to absorb being docked a massive 21 points earlier in the season for entering administration and breaching financial rules.
One of the great names of the English game who were one of the 12 founders of the Football League in 1888 and won the title in 1972 and 1975, Derby is one of those cities dominated by its football club.
But now, instead of challenging to get back into the Premier League, the Rams will play next season in League One, prompting an angry response from manager Wayne Rooney, the former England captain who has galvanised the club’s fan base despite a devastating setback.
No sooner had Derby’s relegation been confirmed with a 1-0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers than Rooney said he hoped former owner Mel Morris, blamed for financial mismanagement, would “lose sleep” over the club’s plight.
“Where the club’s been left, it was a complete mess,” Rooney, whose team would have survived easily but for two savage punishments amounting to those 21 points, told the BBC. “We’ve done everything we can to try and not let this happen.”
“We’ve earned enough points to stay in this division next season and developed some really good, young, local players. In that sense, the future of the club looks bright. But we need to get over what’s happened.”
Derby’s future now very much depends on completing a sale of the club with American businessman Chris Kirchner named as the preferred bidder by the administrators.
Kirchner said back in October he wanted to take Derby out of administration and was seeking approval from the English Football League (EFL).
However, little is known about Kirchner and there are doubts over whether he has the money required to buy the club – reckoned to be £28 million for the club (from the administrator) and £22 million for the stadium (from Morris).
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