Derby County sue ex-president Sam Rush for £7m over transfer dealings

Derby County are suing their former president and chief executive Sam Rush for almost £7m which, the club claims, Rush spent on transfer dealings without the board's permission.

Derby sacked Rush for gross misconduct in May last year and then issued proceedings against him in the High Court in December.

Rush is counter-suing his former employers for unfair dismissal and some outstanding share options - a legal claim which Rush's representatives say is also worth £7m.

Sky Sports News has been given advanced viewing of Derby County's annual accounts statement, which will be released publicly on Wednesday morning. For the first time it reveals the full details of Derby's case against their former boss.

The documents claim that Rush signed unauthorised contracts on Derby's behalf to the tune of £6.84m.

Specifically, Derby claim that Rush signed off:

• Transfer fees that were above the figure agreed by the board of directors
• Wages to players that were in excess of what was agreed by the board
• Excessive and unauthorised payments to agents
• Scouting and consultancy agreements that weren't known or authorised by the board

SSN understands Derby asked the FA to investigate the club's use of consultants at the time when Rush was in charge.

Rush has provided SSN with a robust response to the accusations. A statement from his representatives says that Rush won a claim for wrongful dismissal against Derby County at an industrial tribunal last month. Derby have confirmed this to be true.

The result has been kept secret until now and won't be addressed financially because the decision carries a maximum compensation figure of £80,000. That will be parked until the bigger, much more financially serious, civil cases between Derby and Rush are finalised in the months to come.

Rush's representatives also say that he had no authority to sign off any transfer deals - that was in the hands of the finance director, Stephen Pearce.

And they say that two extensive reviews of Derby's finances took place in September 2015 when local businessman Mel Morris bought the club, and again in an independent audit in June 2016. Neither found any irregularities.

Derby's case against Rush centres around his dealings with Wasserman Media Group (WMG), one of the country's leading sports agencies, which has since been renamed Wasserman.

Rush joined Derby in January 2013 but before taking on the top job at Pride Park he was head of European Operations at Wasserman.

Former manager Paul Clement was a Wasserman client when he took over at Derby in June 2015, and during a two-year period Derby signed five players who were also represented by Wasserman.

They are Darren Bent (free, Jan 2015), Jason Shackell (£3.7m, July 2015), Bradley Johnson (£6m, Sept 2015), Jacob Butterfield (£4m, Sept 2015) and Nick Blackman (£2.5m, Jan 2016).

Derby spent over £16m in transfer fees with Wasserman players at the time.

There is no suggestion that Clement, Wasserman or any of those players, has done anything wrong.

Rush's lawyer, Paul Daniels, says there is "no substance whatsoever" in Derby's claims against his client.

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