And we move up 1 place
Derby County have entered administration and been deducted 12 points by the English Football League.
The Championship club announced their
intention to call in administrators on Friday, with owner Mel Morris saying the coronavirus pandemic had cost them about £20m in lost revenue.
Morris has spent the past two days talking to players and staff, whose jobs are now uncertain.
Wayne Rooney's Rams drop to the foot of the table, on minus two points.
Andrew Hosking, Carl Jackson and Andrew Andronikou, managing directors at business advisory firm Quantuma, have been appointed joint administrators.
"We are in the early stages of assessing the options available to the club and would invite any interested parties to come forward," said Hosking.
"Our immediate objectives are to ensure the club completes all its fixtures in the Championship this season and finding interested parties to safeguard the club and its employees."
The EFL confirmed a 12-point deduction would be applied, adding that it had already had "constructive discussions" with Quantuma and would remain in "regular dialogue" about the situation.
Chief executive Trevor Birch said: "I appreciate that this is a challenging and concerning period for everyone associated with the club, particularly the staff and supporters, and it is our intention to work proactively with the administrators and all relevant parties with the objective of securing a long-term and viable future for Derby County."
Club lost Morris 'in excess of £200m'
Morris became Derby's sole owner in 2015 but has actively been looking to sell since June 2019 following their Championship play-off final defeat by Aston Villa under Frank Lampard. Morris says the club has lost him "in excess of £200m" to date.
A first takeover deal is said to have collapsed in the aftermath of an EFL charge in January 2020 relating to the
sale of Derby's Pride Park to Morris for £80m, despite it previously being listed as worth £41m.
The stadium sale allowed the club to post a pre-tax profit of £14.6m in 2017-18 and therefore meet the EFL's spending rules.
The charge was
dismissed in August 2020 but the Rams face a possible separate points deduction, speculated to be nine points, over their accounting policies - with
no decision yet made on the punishment.
In March of this year Derventio Holdings, who were backed by the Abu Dhabi-based Bin Zayed Group, saw
their takeover bid end while another from
Spanish businessman Erik Alonso was called off in May.
'Serious enquiries' for the Rams
Derby have been under a transfer embargo since before the summer window opened, meaning the Rams have only been allowed to sign free agents with strict conditions on salaries.
Morris told BBC Radio Derby on Sunday that there had been "something in the region" of 15 enquiries for the club over the weekend, two or three of which he said were "very serious".
On the pitch, Derby had been 12th in the Championship under the management of England's record goalscorer Rooney, who has been in permanent charge since he officially retired as a player in January.
However the automatic penalty for going into administration will put the Rams six points adrift of second-bottom Nottingham Forest, their East Midlands rivals.