sport news A 'shambles' and a 'farce'! How Chris Kirchner's bid to buy Derby County ... trends now

The collapse of American entrepreneur Chris Kirchner's bid to buy Derby County has been described as 'a shambles' by those close to the deal.

And the EFL's dithering performance has been labelled 'a farce' that has significantly increased the risk of the Rams going bust.

Sportsmail has spoken to people close to the negotiations to bring Derby out of administration, and they paint a sorry picture.

The EFL may be talking tough now, pledging on Sunday to assume greater control of the Rams' fight for survival amid fears the club will be unable to begin their League One campaign next month.

But the league and Derby's administrators let almost two weeks go by without decisive action after months of delay and uncertainty, since the club went in to administration in September last year.

'Why would you do that?' asked one exasperated executive.

It is claimed the EFL and Quantuma were so desperate to avoid the blame if the unthinkable happened and Derby went bust, that neither had the guts to call a halt to the American entrepreneur's bid to buy the Rams, despite confidence in his ability to make the initial £22M payment to close the deal draining away.

The Rams have been in administration for nine months after multiple failed attempts – and overspending – to reach the Premier League.

The club were relegated from the Championship last season, thanks largely to a 21-point deduction - 12 for entering administration and a further nine for previous financial breaches.

In a protracted saga, Kirchner was eventually named the preferred bidder in the administration process in April and given 'conditional approval' to acquire the stricken East Midlands club in mid-May, with the EFL setting a deadline of May 31 to wrap up the deal.

But it didn't happen. And even though the American consistently failed to produce the money required, the deadline was constantly stretched until he finally withdrew his offer on Monday evening, leaving Derby County back at square one and in an even more desperate search for a buyer.

As a result, Derby is now closer than ever to going out of business.

'They have let it drift and drift and drift and we are now at one minute to midnight,' Niall Couper, head of Fair Game, which campaigns for an independent regulator for football, told Sportsmail. 'We are on the brink of a club that won the league going out of business.'

'We are in a situation where delay is what has made it worse,' he added. 'It is causing heart ache and pain where it is not needed.'

Fans may have focused their ire of late on the joint administrators, Quantuma, and there are undoubtedly questions for them to answer.

However, campaigners, like Couper, say the situation at Pride Park highlights the inability of football authorities to regulate the game. They say this is exactly why an independent regulator is now required.

So, what went wrong?

A week before the EFL-imposed deadline of May 31, the Football League hierarchy remained supremely positive about the sale, telling contacts they were 100 per cent confident it would go through within the agreed time frame.

Indeed, Kirchner himself had been very vocal about his plans for the club, prompting the talkSPORT presenter, Simon Jordan, to bluntly remark that he is 'a guy who tells you the workings of his backside on a daily basis through social media'.

Kirchner struck up a close relationship with the Rams' manager Wayne Rooney and he used his Twitter feed to share extensively his excitement about his imminent takeover.

He attended Derby's home game with Fulham and enjoyed pre-match pints with fans in his position as the appointed saviour of the club, as the city found its voice in the crisis.

On the face of it, it all looked good. Behind the scenes, a tricky part of the deal to save Derby had already been sewn up. The Pride Park stadium was separate to the administration, it remained in the ownership of former chairman, Mel Morris, which has been a complicating factor throughout.

However, a local company, Clowes Developments, whose chairman, David Clowes, describes himself as a loyal supporter of Derby County, agreed to buy Pride Park off Morris and lease it to Kirchner.

Sportsmail has been told that the deal between Clowes and Morris was signed and the money was in place before May 31. All that was needed to trigger the sale of the club – and its liberation from administration - was Kirchner's £22M.

And since the EFL had seen proof of funds as part of its owners' and directors' test, what could possibly go wrong?

But doubts stared to creep in. Some of those involved in the deal believed Kirchner would have his money in place on the Saturday (May 28), ahead of the deadline.

Sportsmail has been told there was some frustration because Kirchner was on the golf course, while details were being finalised. The American's lawyer was left to field enquiries.

When the funds didn't arrive on Saturday, it was assumed the money would land on Monday (May 30). A completion call for the legal teams of the EFL, Morris, Clowes and Kirchner was arranged for Tuesday - deadline day (May 31).

The call never took place as it emerged the funds had not been transferred. Some of those involved thought that would end Kirchner's exclusivity and blow the deal 'wide open', but it didn't.

'This is the whole problem; it was supposed to complete on May 31. It is not like it came around [quickly] and they worked until midnight on 30th… they had weeks to put that money in place,' said a businessman close to one of the parties.

'There has not been a hard deadline in any of this and that is why people keep getting away with it,' said another close observer of the negotiations.

A further call was set up for 8am the following day (June 1) but again financial close was scuppered because the funds had not landed.

In fact, Sportsmail has been told lawyers tried four times to close the deal that day. The last call was scheduled for 10pm, but they were all cancelled.

Anxiety around the missed closure calls was compounded by news that the funds promised to Derby County to pay wages had only arrived on the last day of the month – the last possible day before the club incurred yet another points deduction.

The BBC reported than Kirchner had been expected to pay the wages and they were but 'they have been paid by someone else close to the club'. 

Despite failing to complete his deal by the deadline there appears to have been no suggestion that Kirchner would lose his exclusivity in the process.

In fact, he tweeted on June 2 to suggest the deadline was a nominal date chosen for the convenience of the EFL.

'Nothing to be alarmed about,' read the tweet. 'End of May was chosen because of scheduling for EFL (released in a few weeks) and everyone collectively didn't think about the 3 combined bank holidays this week. Working through it and believe we have it resolved.'

As well as the complication of a US Bank Holiday and the long Jubilee weekend in the UK, it was suggested the transfer of the money had been delayed as a result of routine anti-money laundering checks.

Initially, it is understood, Kirchner tried to move the money to the UK. When that ran into difficulty, he later sought to transfer it to the US bank account of his New York lawyers, who could guarantee to the other parties that it had arrived and the takeover could proceed.

However, that US-to-US bank transfer also proved problematic.

By the beginning of the following week, the EFL and Quantuma were coming under increasing pressure to end Kirchner's exclusivity.

The EFL was telling interested parties it was seeking a meeting with

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