We're in the papers again, as in yet another article from Luton Town complaining about their harsh treatment from the Football Association and the Football League, they suggest its impossible to progress as a club whilst maintaining sound financial management, citing us as an example.

You couldn't make it up.

For those lucky enough to have missed out on every single bit of League Two news which has taken place over the Summer, Luton were deducted ten points by the FA for irregularities in their payments, and were docked a further twenty points by the Football League for failing to come out of administration using a CVA. Basically that means they have not come out of administration with a deal which satisfies the money that they owed money too.

The new board could only scrape the money together to pay the creditors 16 pence in the pound, with the taxman owed a total of £2.5million out of a total debt of approaching £4,000,000. In unrelated news, Luton have just announced the signing of former captain Kevin Nicholls on a three year contract, just two years after he left for £750,000. Guess there's been an influx of funds so that they are capable of dishing out three year contracts to established players.

Anyway, back to the Dale mentioning. In an article in Sunday's Observer newspaper (the national one, not the local photos of people in the clubs one), the new Luton board who have absolved them and the club of any connection with the previous Luton board, have basically come out and said that if you want to do anything in football, then you have to operate in debt.

The offending paragraphs in the article are as follows:

The League argues that, 'the points deduction is intended to protect the integrity of the competition. Ultimately, any new company has to decide whether it is prepared to accept entry conditions. An alternative would be to honour the debts of the previous club in full, in which case we would not seek to impose such additional conditions [as further points].'

Stephen Browne, one of three businessmen behind Luton's consortium, disagrees. 'It's a mockery. Lord Mawhinney [the Football League chairman] talks about integrity, but basically the more debt a club has the more successful you are. Where's the integrity in that? Chesterfield and Rochdale are financially well managed, but hardly great movers and shakers.'

The full article can be read here

Photo: Action Images

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