Luton fans at Wembley with a cheeky nod to Swindon Town manager Ian Holloway, who broke the rules after fielding 2 ineligible players during Swindon’s 2-1 victory over Luton in the last 16 of the EFL trophy. Swindon were kicked out of the competition and Luton are now in the final - brilliant 😂
While we all head to Wembley this weekend, work is now progressing above ground at our new stadium back home.
This first Tower Crane stands 70m tall and will service Power Court's West Stand, with another for the South Stand going up in the coming days.
@CapitalSkyLTD
If the FA apply a points deduction proportionate to Luton's 10-point deduction to Chelsea (based on Luton's payments to agents being £160,00 and Chelsea's being £47.5m), then Chelsea will be deducted 2,970 points.
@henrywinter Thank you Henry, the first journalist I've seen to call out the inconsistency with Luton's 10-point deduction in 2008 when Luton's new owners also self-reported irregularities dealing with agents by the previous owners.
Good result for Chelsea: club fined only £10m and given a suspended transfer ban after Premier League found 36 separate undisclosed payments totalling £47.5m made “to 12 persons or entities on behalf of the club”. Lenient sanctions. No sporting sanctions. Yet these are serious offences, as the sanction agreement between the PL and Chelsea makes clear, stating “they were not only obvious and deliberate breaches of the rules but also because they involved deception and concealment in relation to financial matters”.
Yet no points deductions. Just a manageable (if record) fine and a “suspended one-year first-team player transfer ban (suspended for two years)”. Surely they gained a sporting advantage by recruiting such players? So surely a sporting sanction should be in order? And where's the consistency? In 2008, Luton Town received a 10-point deduction for irregularities in dealing with agents (nb from FA). There still could be some further sanctions by the FA following its "ongoing investigation".
PL points to mitigating factors: current owners Clearlake/Todd Boehly in May 2022 voluntarily self-reported potential historical breaches from the Roman Abramovich era. Club co-operated extensively and helped provide (with others) 10,000 documents for PL investigation.
PL established “that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties”. Payments related to the purchases of players including Eden Hazard, Willian, Samuel Eto’o, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic - there is no suggestion any were aware of the illicit payments.
The detailed work of the investigators – and level of Clearlake’s co-operation – is impressive. The sanctions less so. It is a legitimate debate: should a club be punished for offences under a previous owner? Yes, most fans of other clubs would scream. It's a deterrent. And the value of those players' contribution and subsequent sales arguably still benefits the club.
PL also investigated “potential breaches of the Premier League’s Youth Development Rules, committed by a former senior employee, relating to the club’s registration of Academy players between 2019 and 2022”. Again, self-reported by the club, this time in 2025. Chelsea punished with £750,000 fine and immediate nine-month ban from registering academy players from PL and EFL clubs. #CFC
Following a meeting between senior players and Loyal Luton SC this week, there’s a message from messrs Naismith, Wells, Saville, Al Hamadi, Clark and Shea in today’s programme…
@LutonTown Congratulations to Luton Town on getting to the Vertu Trophy so pleased for all of you Hatters fans now go on and win https://t.co/nd7atUKzvx Wishes Brian Horton 👍⚽️