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And the other interesting piece is the lack of a retained list from Derby

I was once told that what I called luck was actually my internal justification to explain the difference between my ability to spot skill and the actual level of skill existing.

Local media, local to me and Derby that is, are reporting that the Derby punishment will be announced next week.

It wont. All being listed as an Asset of Community Value does is give the community chance to buy the asset at the agreed price between the seller and the other buyer. If the community can't meet the price it can't buy the asset. If the football club goes into administration then the administrator can do, amongst others, three things. Firstly they can disclaim any onerous assets that are in effect costs to the club such as the lease. Secondly they can seek to reverse any transactions involving transfers from the club at an undervalue. Thirdly much more likely that they will try and recover the sale price from the company that purchased the asset. If that company doesn't pay the administrators can compromise the debt, for example give me the stadium freehold and I will not sue your for the money, if there are debts secured on the freehold that gets more complicated. Plus of course the freehold of the ground is valuable, so someone else might want it. The first one is unlikely to happen as anyone buying the club needs the ground (or a League One standard ground). If anyone suggests that the ground sale was a transaction at an undervalue then ...... Of course if the club does go into administration they will take a 12 point deduction too.

I am happy to put on record that I believe every word of what the club are saying in their press releases in respect of the disciplinary action. I just think that they are misleading, open to interpretation and very, very well crafted. I completely agree with the club that in the strictest and narrowest possible sense (and ignoring any penalty for non-compliance) the only possible outcome of the EFL winning the appeal is that Derby will have to resubmit the relevant P&S computations. That is obvious. What is completely missing is the next step. What happens when those P&S computations are resubmitted? I have always fully accepted that you might be right, but if I was a Derby Fan I would be concerned that the club have not stated that they meet the P&S loss rules for all years. It's a simple sentence to add to the press releases, and quick to craft.

Whilst all that is noted and understood you also need to take into account that was not until a week or so before the Independent Disciplinary Committee hearing that Derby County finally made the EFL aware of the actual amortisation method used. Taking that as a fact (it is mentioned in the IDC decision) then the absence of a P&S failure in exceeding the loss limits is not at all surprising. They simply didn't know. Looking at it another way, it is for the EFL to prove their case. If they cannot cover the basics on that any charge would have to fail. Better to wait and see what the actual outcome is. As I have asked before. If Derby have not breached the P&S loss limits why don't they simply come out and say so? It would have been quite easy to add a sentence of meaning to the otherwise absurd press release that did come out.

I have nothing to add to that.

Just to fill in the gaps. In the Derby case both parties have the right to appeal any decision of the IDC to the LAP. The LAP decision is final in all respects. The problems with the LAP determining the sanction in respect of the 'amortisation' decision are three fold: Firstly the LAP had no power to impose a penalty in respect of the 'misleading' decision as the actual decision was not before it. Derby admitted this and the IDC confirmed that decision and it was not under appeal. So you could have two different panels imposing different penalties in different ways. A sanction decision by the LAP cannot be appealed. The 'elephant in the room' being that if the decision of LAP means that Derby fail FFP loss rules then that is the real offence. In that case that sanction, being a potentially very significant points deduction will become the real sanction and the other two charges will become aggravating factors in arriving at that sanction. 1 &2 are really sensible reasons from a natural justice perspective and third simply reflects the reality of the position. All in all painful - but they will get there.

I wonder how Liew got snubbed or put down by Levy in the past. He can't even get his facts right, Levy owns less than 30% of Spurs, or he did on the last count, so still has the majority shareholder to account to.

I have a huge amount of sympathy for Wycombe. I hope that they will be back. There is the option of Wycombe asking for Derby to be expelled at the AGM, but I would be really surprised if that was even discussed let alone voted on.

I think that there are a few clarifications needed. Firstly as regards other clubs and lawyers you won't see any court action. Part of signing up to the EFL is that you agree to exclusively use Arbitration with no recourse to the courts. Secondly it is not the EFL which punishes clubs, but the Independent Disciplinary Commission. That has to meet, listen to the evidence and then agree on a punishment. That punishment is the subject to appeal by either party. Thirdly the added complication in Derby's case is that two charges of breaches of the FFP rules were found proven, one (misleading) by default as Derby admitted it and the second (incorrect amortisation) by the League Appeal Panel. But they were not charged with a breach of the loss limits as a result, as simply put the EFL didn't know. If Derby are now in a breach of the loss limits then they might needed to be charged again, and then the process starts again. I doubt that there will be a final resolution until much later in the year. The EFL certainly could have handled matters better and more effectively, but they did actually pin two proven charges on Derby against fierce resistance. I'm not sure the delay is going to save Derby for anything more than one season. It would appear that they are still under a transfer embargo, possibly a hard one by now. That with a potential significant points deduction in the upcoming season is going to make their life very difficult.

The transaction has one purpose only and that is to comply with FFP. The capital contribution simply enables the club to access the higher £13 million loss limit a year rather than the restricted loss limit of £5 million a year. As to scrutiny it has to be a two way track, good things should be recognised and bad things should be recognised equally.

No. Separate business. In another development - a banker involved in the same tax fraud as Gabay was sentenced to 5 years or so in prison, along with a confiscation notice. If Gabay's business is still owed money by Derby, he might need it back fairly quickly!

yep - boat trips to India for the British Raj - always on the shady side (when shady only meant in the shade!)

My only interesting experiences in football were running the line for my daughter's team. The local posh team were renowned for causing problems. First half I was spat on by a parent who objected to my offside flag, second half he thought it would be fun to trip me as I ran past him. It all ended badly for him though as my head planted into his wife's face knocking out two of her teeth and as she fell to the ground she broke her arm and collar bone .... As to hockey that was much more fun, used to play in goal. 6-0 up with 10 minutes to go in freezing fog on the Fen lands. Groundsman brought me out a cup of coffee with a saucer - lovely thought but a bit impractical with goalie gloves and a helmet! Went to a tournament in the Netherlands one year - rather alcoholic crossing - arrived - turned out that a car had missed the crossing from the previous winners - so still under the influence was asked to play in goal in the invitation match (my first on proper astroturf) - and then proceeded to be handed a beer with a straw at every opportunity by two rather lovely young Dutch ladies who clearly knew what they were doing! I played an absolute blinder and kept a clean sheet, sadly never replicated that level of skill.