Wycombe Wanderers could launch legal action against relegation after Derby administration

Wycombe Wanderers teamGetty Images

Wycombe were relegated to League One at the end of the 2021 season

By Simon Stone
BBC Sport

Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig is considering taking legal action against the club's relegation to League One after Derby announced they are due to go into administration.

It comes after Derby owner Mel Morris' admission the club would have been at risk of a points deduction if it had submitted accounts for 2017-18 without using the club's controversial amortisation method.

Wycombe were relegated to League One at the end of last season after finishing a point behind Derby in the Championship.

The Rams are due to go into administration this week after Morris conceded defeat in his battle to navigate the club through a succession of financial issues, which include the outstanding Financial Fair Play case against them.

In June, Derby were fined £100,000 and ordered to file restated accounts after their method of calculating the value of players was ruled invalid.

At the time, the English Football League (EFL) released an interchangeable 2021-22 fixture list as there was a chance Derby could suffer a points deduction that triggered relegation.

That did not happen. But Morris revealed in an interview with BBC Radio Derby that the accounts are still to be submitted as "discussions" with the EFL were still to be completed but that there would be a breach "from memory about £4m for the 2017-18 season, which would have been something like a four-point deduction".

"Not being in the Championship this year has cost us, on the surface, around £10m," Couhig told BBC Sport. "It has probably cost another £5-10m in residual monies that would have come from us being in the Championship for a second year. It is a £15-20m loss.

"I am not just chairman and chief executive [at Wycombe], one of my obligations is to the 25% of my shareholders, which is a Trust made up of almost 1,000 of our fans. How do I explain to them that we have lost, in effect, £20m without looking at all the options? I don't know if there is a viable claim or not but there is no question we will look," he added without saying who any claim would be against.

Couhig listened to Morris' hour-long interview with a mixture of emotions.

While sympathetic to the Derby fans, whose side will drop to the foot of the Championship when the 12-point deduction for entering into administration is applied, he is less forgiving towards Morris.

"He feels terrible because his pride got ahead of himself, thought he was doing something good for his team and then he couldn't stop himself," he said. "But representing Wycombe, I am furious.

"He knew last summer, when all this was going on, where this was going to end up, that he would end up with a points deduction and they made a deliberate policy to fight it until the end so they could get to this season, keep themselves in the Championship and keep the Championship money and put us back into League One."

When asked about the delay in BBC Radio Derby's interview, Morris said the reason for it was "because we were discussing with the EFL the final pieces".

"The accounts would have been filed as soon as we got those discussions completed so we could draw a line in the sand with that," he added. "Those discussions have taken longer than we wanted. We are still waiting now on the EFL to come back to us with their final view on that."

Morris has pledged to work with the administrators to try to find a buyer for Derby.

However, there are numerous issues to resolve. It is estimated the club's liabilities could be approaching £50m. In addition, it is losing around £1.5m a month and it is not entirely clear if there is enough money to pay wages, which are due this week.

Beyond that, there is the possibility of another nine-point deduction that was in the process of being agreed with the Football League for previous financial breaches. But because that was tied to an additional three-point deduction agreed as part of a forward business plan that the administrators are highly unlikely to accept, it is not clear whether that will be triggered.

In addition, the club remains under a soft transfer embargo and at risk of a further 15-point deduction if it fails to pay 25% of outstanding sums to non-secured creditors.

"My fear is that they have placed a club like Derby, with its rich history, one of the founders of the league, in real jeopardy," said Couhig.

"People say they will put it into administration and somebody will come in and buy it because it is Derby. But how many points will Derby be faced with being deducted this year? More saliently, they are going to be faced with further deductions next year.

"In likelihood you would be buying a League Two team with an accumulated £50m debt. There are only so many people in the world who are out there and willing to do that."

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