DERBY’S administrators have offered hope to the club’s supporters and say they are confident of finding a buyer by the end of the year.

But they warned the disparity in revenue between the Premier League and Championship meant that other second-tier clubs would fall into the same trap as Derby “time and time again.”

One of the club’s administrators Andrew Hosking said today that they had already held conversations with “credible” buyers, and that there was a prospect that some of the club’s debts could be discounted.

“A club of this magnitude is such that it does have a viable future,” he said.

“No-one’s underestimating the task ahead of ourselves because, clearly, there will need to be some difficult decisions made.

“But there is a considerable degree of interest in this club. A lot of it was expressed prior to (entering) administration.

“Now that the club is in administration, notwithstanding the points deduction and clearly the distress to the supporters, the staff and suppliers to the club, we do consider that the position to be able to make a successful conclusion to the story is now really very, very practical.

“We don’t consider the obstacles that we face at this stage insurmountable.”