The punishment has presented a quandary though because while many will agree with the club being punished for failing to deal with agents properly is the 20 point deductions slightly harsh when you consider what a dire situation Luton currently find themselves in.
The Hatters will have a hard job avoiding relegation for the third time in a row as they will now start with minus 30 when they kick-off the new season against Port Vale at home. Things haven't gone well for the club for quiet some time and this punishment could put the nail in the coffin of Luton's football league status, perhaps even their status as a club. They have only just been taken over by a new consortium headed by BBC's Nick Owen after a long search for a buyer and this will not fill the new investors with much confidence that they can turn the clubs current plight around. In fact it wouldn't be a surprise if the club was put up for sale again after such a major blow to the clubs promotion hopes.
To say that last season wasn't a good one for the Hatters would be an understatement because despite the glamour FA cup tie with Liverpool Luton were deducted 10 points for going into administration again and as such were forced to sell off all of their half decent players just to keep the club stable. That was followed by the subsequent investigation into the dodgy dealing with agents and then ended with relegation from League 1. All this from a club that was in the top flight of English football 20 years ago. If you think the Hatters will bounce back to League 1 here at the football odds.
The ruling has disturbed me in a few ways, mainly because whilst the rich get richer and everyone else has to struggle by. Why are the Football League punishing a cash-strapped club so harshly? As I mentioned earlier I don't think anyone will quibble with the punishment for the dealings with agents because it has long since been rumoured that something was not right with the way Luton dealt with player's representatives. Along with the fact that the whole of football seems to be fed up with agents and you have a situation that was never going to end well. Just look at Wayne Rooney's agent Paul Stretford who was given an 18-month ban for the way he handled his acquisition of Rooney's signature. It seems then that after years of rumours floating around of brown paper bags the FA and the Football League are to take actions against the agents. Unfortunately Luton has become the first to suffer and it look as though they have been made examples of.
The other matter is not so clear, why would you punish a club that has already suffered at the hands of point's deduction to the point where it is threatening their survival? I understand that the whole point of the rule was to try and make sure clubs didn't go into administration but the ruling has become counter productive. Luton are not the only club to be affected, Bournemouth look set to start the new season on minus ten whilst Rotherham could be even worse off on minus 15. However Luton haven't just entered administration but are fighting to get out of it but their failure to agree on the fact they need to exit administration has cost them. I can understand that the club have been warned about this before but it seems to me that there isn't much more they can do in getting themselves out of this situation other than sell off the ground like Rotherham have been forced to.
If the Football League wants clubs to survive then surely it must be more tolerant of the fact that they aren't all going to have the turnovers of Manchester United. Clubs in League 2 will normally operate at a lose and if clubs gamble on success but lose or are badly run by chairman who aren't interested in football then you end up in Luton or Rotherham's situation. As the head of the new consortium Stephen Browne said the Hatters are still being punished for the sins of the previous owners. Perhaps instead of punishing the clubs with people in charge who are trying to make amends the FA and Football League should go after the crooks who continue to exploit clubs for their own gain. Oxford fans will tell you about Firoz Kassam while Mansfield fans will tell you about Keith Haslam, many clubs have their tyrants which is more of a crime than failing to stay out of administration in my eyes.