Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has explained what David Clowes did at Derby County to avoid a points deduction.
David Clowes came to Derby County’s saviour when he paid £33 million, which included £19.7m paid to creditors, to buy the club in July 2022.
Rams supporters are eternally grateful for Clowes as he saved their club from impending doom following their relegation from the Championship in 2022.
With Paul Warne at the helm, Derby have since returned to the second tier, sealing promotion on the final day against Carlisle United.
The club are now in a strong position, after letting six first-team players depart, to strengthen this summer and equip themselves with quality to stay in the division.
This all wouldn’t have been possible without Clowes’ intervention, and it has now been revealed he saved the club from being docked further points.
Kieran Maguire explains how David Clowes saved Derby County from points deduction
During the 2021/22 campaign, Derby were handed a nine-point deduction for breaching profit and sustainability rules, and another 12 when the club went into administration.
This massive setback confirmed their relegation to the Championship under Wayne Rooney, who would have dragged the Rams to a 17th-place finish without the deductions.
Derby recovered in League One by winning promotion in their second season however, football finance expert Kieran Maguire has revealed they would have been docked a further 15 points if Clowes didn’t swoop in.
The 55-year-old paid all of the football creditors in full, writing off all debts and avoiding a deduction. According to Maguire, the rules state that the club would have been subjected to an ‘exit penalty’ – a 15-point deduction – if they didn’t pay the creditors in full.
Speaking on the Price of Football podcast, Maguire said: “In the case of Krystian Bielik, I went through the administrators report on sort of a line-by-line basis and it said there were some unsecured football creditors of £8.8 million pounds, a significant chunk of which was irrespective of the Bielik deal.
“But, the purchaser of the club had agreed to settle those debts effectively, not necessarily on a personal basis but corporate basis.
“So although, in theory, the administrators had to go and pay that, it looks as though David Clowes’ organisation will have made those payments. And therefore, Derby would not have been subject to an exit penalty for coming out of administration and that exit penalty I think was another 15 point deduction.
“The rules are, you’ve got to pay all of the football creditors in full and the other creditors have to receive a minimum of 25%.”
Krystian Bielik deal was a nightmare for Derby County
Derby shelled out a club-record £10 million to sign Krystian Bielik on a permanent deal from Arsenal in August 2019.
The 11-cap Poland international made 49 appearances for the Rams across three campaigns before being sold to Birmingham City for an initial fee of just under £1 million, according to Birmingham Mail, which was a huge loss on the price they paid.
Ultimately, it was deals – like the one that brought Bielik to Pride Park – that plunged Derby towards financial doom and Clowes had to pick up the pieces.
They were still suffering years after agreeing on a deal with the Gunners and fortunately, the Derbyshire businessman intervened at the right time.
It’s a deal that has likely scarred the club from paying over the odds for a player given the ramifications it can have financially.
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