American businessman Chris Kirchner withdrew his bid to buy Championship club Derby County who sit bottom of the league and are 18 points from safety. The announcement came both from Kirchner, as well as the club.

“It is with real sadness that I can confirm I am withdrawing from the process to buy Derby County Football Club,” Kirchner said in a statement via social media. “First and foremost, I would like to apologize to the fans. As you know, I’ve been in talks with the administrators for about two months. Two weeks ago, I made a formal offer to buy the club. I believe I presented a very detailed, generous and ambitious long-term sustainable business plan. It included purchasing the stadium, future funding and maintaining the academy’s status. We improved that offer further today. I wanted to agree a deal that I thought was in the best interests of all parties but, unfortunately, the last 24 hours has proven that just isn’t possible.”

An administrator from the club said there will be an upcoming announcement of a bidder the club preferred to go with. That ‘preference’ ultimately pushed Kirchner to back out.

“So it is with deep regret that I must now stand aside and let the administrators pursue their own course,” Kirchner said.

Derby County is currently managed by former Manchester United legend, Wayne Rooney.

Rooney had already put his stamp of approval on Kirchner back in October.

“I think it is a real positive,” Rooney said then. “As I have said before there are quite a few people or a few groups interested in the club.He [Chris Kirchner] was at the game last week. I spent a bit of time with him, so he has got some really good ideas and as long as everything is right for the club I can see it being a real positive.”

“We expect to name preferred bidder status imminently,” Quantuma, Derby’s administrators, said. “We repeat that we are moving as quickly as possible to achieve a sale of the club.”

Derby County, 24th in Championship, are back in action on Monday, 27 November, against West Brom.