Darragh MacAnthony, the chairman of Peterborough United, has slammed Saudi billionaire sports entrepreneur Turki Alalshikh for pulling out of an agreement to buy a major part in Championship club Derby County.

On August 10, the Rams revealed via social media that the projected financial injection from Alalshikh, which had been in the Independent Football Regulator’s approval stage in recent weeks, would no longer go ahead, as the Middle Eastern investor no longer wanted to proceed with the arrangement.

It came as a huge surprise to County fans who had long expected more transfer funds to be available for John Eustace to strengthen his squad, and it is not the first time that a prospective new owner has appeared to want to come into the club and make a change, only for it to either fall through or be proven inadequate.

Darragh MacAnthony reacts to Turki Alalshikh and Derby County twist.

MacAnthony, who has been the owner and chairman of Peterborough for 20 years, has expressed dissatisfaction with Derby owner David Clowes regarding the failed takeover.According to MacAnthony, the club likely planned carefully and kept the manager informed.

This may have impacted their transfer strategy this summer, as selling a share of a club can limit the number of players and money that can be spent, altering the dynamics of the deal.My only hope for Derby’s case and the owner is that he had a nice, hefty deposit that he gets to keep.

Turki Alalshikh deserves to lose whatever deposit he put in if he did it that way, but I don’t know the terms of the SPA and the overall agreement that was signed a few months ago.When selling a property, approval is typically required and a deposit is placed in escrow. If the buyer withdraws for unjustified reasons,

the seller retains the substantial deposit.It is disappointing. “If I were the Derby owner, I’d be devastated, but this happens.”Robbie Cowling, a friend of mine who owns Colchester, has been left at the altar a couple of times; he’s worked hard for nine, ten months on the current takeover, and it fell through, and it’s typically due to clauses being put in to change the agreement, among other things.

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Turki Alalshikh is blamed, while the FA and IFR defend themselves over the Derby County takeover collapse.

In a personal statement issued immediately after the takeover was reported, Alalshikh mentioned the length of the Independent Football Regular process and how finalising a sale now would leave little time to prepare for the rest of the season.

According to John Percy of The Telegraph, the IFR approved the deal on August 5, but Alalshikh changed his mind for unknown reasons. MacAnthony believes Clowes has every right to be upset, but blame cannot be placed on the EFL or the IFR for the processes in place.MacAnthony expressed frustration, saying,

“I’d come out and go ‘buzz off’, with all due respect.”I don’t know the guy, I see what everyone else sees with the money that’s going into boxing, I don’t know if it’s his money or someone else’s money, I don’t know what was going on with the takeover – if it was approved, he’s obviously a wealthy man, he obviously has no problem, I’m sure he’d have a lot of fun if he bought a football club, but really, say what you mean, mean what you say, and back it up.

“I do not believe the EFL or the regulation should be blamed for this. “They clearly completed the process successfully.”The most common accusation levelled at rogue owners in the past has been that they have been permitted to buy into clubs, persons with no money, and other such situations.

We’ve seen it; there is a long, ugly laundry list. We cannot criticise any governing authorities for their permission.I believe Turki should come out and be honest. Have you lost interest? Did you ever wake up and say, ‘I don’t want to own a football club’?

Has he spoken with past teams and taken this route?And the problem for him is that every time he now tries to approach a club, you’re going to be warned, you’re going to be like, ‘hang on a second, I get you’ve got money,’ but if he called me, I’d be like, ‘I get you’ve got money, but I ain’t got time to waste, when you’re going to spend three or four months and then use all the publicity and then suddenly pull out at the last minute.”

Derby County has had experience with time-wasters, and Turki Alalshikh is the latest.

It’s only been four years since Derby were saved by lifetime supporter and local businessman Clowes ahead of the 2022–23 League. One season, with the club in administration for over a year before his contract was signed with Quantuma.

They were duped by disgraced US businessman Chris Kirchner, first when he backed out of his planned pursuit of ownership at Christmas 2021, and then again in June 2022, two months after he was named preferred bidder – which was probably for the best, given he was jailed for 20 years two years later on fraud charges.

Prior to the administration, Erik Alonso was another person who failed to take over the club when his funding could not be proven, and it’s a huge relief that Clowes stepped in to save the day when he did, and he’s led Derby back into the Championship and challenging for the play-offs in such a short period of time, which must be commended.

Clowes has made no secret of his desire to seek external investment to alleviate the burden on his shoulders, and when Alalshikh emerged as a potential partner, he presumably thot all his Christmases had arrived at once.

Unfortunately, it has not been the case once more, and there can be no blame placed on Clowes or the fact that Derby is no longer for sale given what has happened – Alalshikh has previously owned clubs in Spain and Egypt, so he was not going to enter the deal as a novice, but for whatever reason, and there may be more that he has not revealed, he no longer wants to be the Rams’ owner, and he is unlikely to be invited to Pride Park as a guest anytime soon.