Derby County owner agrees to sell club to Abu Dhabi royal

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

Derby County owner Mel Morris has agreed a deal in principle to sell the English Championship club to Abu Dhabi-based Sheikh Khaled bin Saquer Zayed Al Nayhan.

The deal will see ownership of Derby County transferred to Derventio Holdings (UK) Limited, which is effectively owned by Sheikh Khaled. 

In a statement on the club’s website on Friday, Derby confirmed that Derventio passed the English Football League board’s approval and that the deal would now go ahead. 

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Sheikh Khaled, a cousin of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour, has been on the hunt for an English football club for some time, having made a £2 billion offer for Liverpool in 2018 and most recently declared an interest in buying Newcastle United last year. 

Sheikh Khaled will take over a club that are currently languishing near the bottom of the Championship table, having won just one of their opening 10 games in this season’s league campaign. 

Although Derby reached the Championship playoffs in 2018/19, the Rams haven’t won promotion to the Premier League since 2007/08 and may need some significant investment from their new owner if they plan to do so.