Wycombe watching developments at Derby

Wycombe Wanderers owner Rob Couhig is monitoring the fall-out from Derby County’s decision to enter administration and has told The Athletic his side lost £10 million through their relegation to League One last season — when Derby stayed up on the final day by a point.

Couhig says there could be as much as another £10 million of “residual loss”. He and Wycombe are assessing their next move.

“There is no doubt in my mind, and everybody knows, that Derby should have been penalised last season, that we should be playing in the Championship now and that this has cost the club upwards of £10 million that we can immediately show,” Couhig says. “There is then a residual loss that’s probably another £10 million.

“It’s a lot to digest, but for a club like Wycombe that had never played in the Championship in 133 years of existence, to be there and stay for a second year would be transformative. It changes the whole basis of things, with sponsors and the like.”

The EFL published interchangeable fixture lists for Derby and Wycombe in June — Derby in League One and Wycombe in the Championship — such was the uncertainty around Pride Park. But Wycombe have ended up in League One, where they are fifth in the table after seven games.

“I am looking at this thing (their relegation and Derby’s administration) and saying: ‘What does this mean to us economically?’,” Couhig says. “In the spirit of full disclosure, I am looking at all of those things. I do not want to say we are going to do anything, but getting whacked for this amount of money? We’ve done things right.

“We have faced COVID-19, we have faced other issues, but our club is stronger today than it was two years ago. Financial sustainability for us is not just a slogan, it is a way of living every day. For us to be denied putting £20 million into the coffers of the club and set it up for a generation has to be looked at.”

Derby’s 2016, 2017 and 2018 accounts are being re-examined after they were found to have broken accounting rules, for which they could face further points deductions as well as the mandatory 12-point loss for entering administration.

In July, Derby were fined £100,000 by the EFL but avoided a points deduction that would likely have sent them to the third tier instead of Wycombe.

“The people in the EFL have done everything they should do, or as far as I know, that they could do given the relative authority they have and the procedures in place. I don’t have a bone to pick with them. It’s the set-up,” says Couhig.