Middlesbrough Chairman, Steve Gibson has issued an open letter to Derby County administrators following allegations against the club.
Boro launched a legal claim in January 2021 against Derby after first initiating the claim in May 2019 once aware of the Rams cheating under P&S Rules during 2018-19 season due to their cheating costing Boro a Play-Off spot.
The claim however was ‘held in abeyance whilst EFL Disciplinary Proceedings took place.
The club proceeded to issue a statement on Tuesday in which they explained ‘full facts’ as much as legally possible, whilst accusing Derby of deploying ‘various procedural tactics to seek to delay the proceedings’, which meant that their claim is set to be settled.
Derby’s administrators though have accused of Middlesbrough’s legal battle of causing a delay in the sale of the club, which Gibson has denied as he described the comments made to the media as remarks which are ‘not correct.’
Wycombe also have launched a legal claim after Derby’s tactics saw them avoid a points deduction during post-season, which ultimately saw the Chairboys relegated at end of last season whereas Derby would of gone down if there had been a points deduction.
Gibson consequently has issued an open letter in order ‘to clarify the position and give some important context to the sale of Derby County.’
Within the letter, he laid out various points of concern and requested various acts of clarity.
Gibson’s first point concerned a lender known as MSD who are ‘owed a significant amount of money by Derby County which is personally guaranteed by Mel Morris’, whilst expressing concern that if the club is liquated then Morris would have to settle the debt himself.
Gibson therefore requested that Derby’s administrators ‘confirm the current status of the discussions with the lender and Mr Morris about the debt and the transfer of Pride Park, which is owned by Mr Morris, to any purchaser of Derby County.’
The 64 year-old went on to state that he had met with Derby’s administrators in November 2021 and agreed ‘continued dialogue’, only for no further engagement or communication to be held until Friday 14 January 2022 so is seeking a reason behind the lack of communication.
Following claims from Derby’s administrators that the claims of Middlesbrough and Wycombe remain the last two legal issues to resolves, Gibson has also requested clarity of a settlement with HMRC and the exact ‘basis of that settlement.’
Gibson also iterated that Boro ‘have made an offer to compromise our claim’ following discussions last weekend, so is seeking clarity that this is correct compared to information which has been leaked to the media in recent days.
One final concern that Gibson has requested clarity about was concerning how much of Derby’s finances have been spent on the administrators’ fees to date and any ‘additional debt’ which has been incurred during the process.
Concluding his open letter, Gibson repeated on behalf of Middlesbrough FC as a whole ‘that we have no wish to see Derby County cease to exist.’
Instead what he and the club want is just ‘to be dealt with fairly and can only conclude that you are currently choosing to use ourselves, the EFL and Wycombe Wanderers as scapegoats for your failure to conclude what should have been a relatively simple task of bringing Derby County out of administration.’
To read Gibson’s open letter in full, please click HERE.
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