Championship strugglers Derby County are set to be taken over by Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed – the man rumoured to be on the verge of buying the Toon 18 months ago.
The Abu Dhabi prince is the cousin of Man City owner Sheikh Mansour and it’s now emerged via a Derby County statement that the BZG have received EFL approval to buy the club from Mel Morris, with the deal expected to go through ‘very soon’ after both parties struck an agreement ‘in principle’.
This news will come as a huge sigh of relief to Rams fans as a disappointing start to the campaign sees them sitting second bottom in the table, with manager Phillip Cocu under-fire.
The Premier League and the EFL operate different ‘owners and directors tests’ with the football league having a slightly more liberal approach to new owners coming in.
This has led to controversy in recent times, especially with the collapse of Bury and the ongoing scandal at Wigan. However, it does beg the question, would he have been able to buy Derby had they been in the top flight?
Could PIF’s Mohammed bin Salman buy a Championship club without any issues? Would you take a relegation on the chin to get the deal done?
Either way, it does beg the obvious ‘it could have been us’ feeling – should Derby go on to become successful following this surprise acquisition.
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Feeling sick with the injustice dealt to NUFC by those southern b——s running the PL. All fans should remember the part played by Liverpool and Man Utd.
Len. Galloway(Quote)
Not sure what the problem is. They could not afford to buy Newcastle so they had to go down market.
Helen Clarey(Quote)