Thousands of fans have signed a petition calling on the Government to help Derby County over legal issues preventing a take-over of the club.
Derby fan Adam Boddington has set up the petition asking sports minister Nigel Huddleston to look at compensation claims which have been made by Middlesbrough and Wycombe Wanderers against Wayne Rooney's side.
Almost 40,000 people had signed the petition by Monday morning.
The petition states: “Despite the law of England and Wales prohibiting claims being made against companies in administration, both Middlesbrough and Wycombe Wanderers appear not to be applying the law of the land in arbitration.
“The outstanding compensation claims appear to go against this law.
“This is acting as a barrier to the club's future being secured and the culture and heritage of our great city being preserved.
“We have been deducted 21 points already. All we ask is to be treated fairly and allowed to move forward from this awful mess.”
Derby have won their last three Championship matches and are now second from bottom in the league.
Quantuma, the business advisory firm appointed to oversee the club's administration by owner Mel Morris in September, released a statement referring to 'disputed' claims that are the 'last remaining significant obstacle' preventing a takeover.
DerbyshireLive reported that a consortium made up of former Rams chairman Andy Appleby and ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers chief executive Jez Moxey is keen on taking on the club, while former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has also been linked.
It said the Rams are believed to currently owe a total of £60 million to creditors, with 'unsecured' creditors typically getting 25 per cent of what they are owed, though Middlesbrough and Wycombe are reportedly pursuing the club for a combined £50 million.
The crisis at Pride Park has deepened in the last week after it emerged the club has until February 1 to prove they have the funds to see out the rest of the season.
It has been claimed that they could be kicked out of the Football League if they fail to do that.
Quantuma said it is urgently seeking clarification from the English Football League (EFL) as to why the disputed claims cannot be sorted out sooner rather than later.
In a statement Quantuma said: “As we have previously reported there has been considerable interest from a number of credible parties.
“There are currently three parties who have made offers.
“One of the Joint Administrators’ duties is to act in the interest of all creditors, and this includes secured creditors, preferential creditors and the unsecured (“ordinary“) creditors owed monies by the club.
“In relation to a football insolvency this duty is further compounded by dealing with those creditors known as “football creditors” which need to be dealt with in order to protect the club’s ongoing membership of the English Football League.
“The Joint Administrators have an exit plan ready to implement and be approved by creditors and this is with a view to adjusting offers received to accommodate the EFL insolvency policy and their requirements to creditors.
“The difficulty and currently, in our view, the last remaining significant obstacle is to deal with certain claims that are very much disputed but which we are being advised by the EFL cannot be currently compromised notwithstanding statute says otherwise.
“Whilst we accept this is frustrating for all, none of the interested parties are able to progress matters further until such time that an agreement can be reached.
“Linked to the above is the need to ensure the club can be funded, if needs be, over the coming months or until we have successfully completed a sale.
“The EFL have demanded that we prove adequate funding is in place and until as such time as we are able to do that, they will not progress player registrations – this includes some players where contracts needed to be extended this month.”
Quantuma said while they had a number of options as to how that funding could be delivered, it had not been finalised, but hopefully could be in the coming weeks.
