Chris Kirchner misses Friday deadline to prove he has funds for Derby takeover

Derby’s administrators have confirmed that the club’s prospective buyer, Chris Kirchner, has not met Friday’s 5pm (BST) deadline to provide proof he has the means to purchase the club.

A statement from the administrators, Quantama, read: “Further to our update yesterday evening, and despite the best efforts of the parties, Mr Kirchner has, as of yet, not provided us with satisfactory evidence that he is in a position to complete the acquisition of the club – albeit he continues to work on this.”

The administrators for the stricken League One club have been in discussions with other interested parties as a contingency measure, with the former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley among them.

“The joint administrators are continuing discussions with other interested parties,” Friday’s statement continued. “Contrary to reports in the media today, no interested party has been excluded from these discussions.”

It appears that American businessman Kirchner is still pursuing the deal, having exchanged contracts with the joint administrators on 16 May. Derby will find out their League One schedule in fewer than two weeks, with fixtures released on 23 June.

The English Football League (EFL), which had given conditional approval to Kirchner’s ownership, said on Thursday it was “incredibly disappointed” by the latest hiccup in the process and called for a resolution “as a matter of urgency”.

At the time of writing, there has been no further statement from the EFL in response to Friday’s developments.