Luton into administration – again!

The club website, www.lutontown.co.uk, have announced that Brendan Guilfoyle of insolvency specialists, The P&A Partnership, is one of three administrators appointed by the directors of Luton Town Football Club Ltd to run the club with a view to its sale.

The reasons given are that the company could not continue, given its decreasing income and escalating liabilities.

Brendan Guilfoyle said: ‘Administration will give the club breathing space and an opportunity to restructure its finances. Our aim is to maximise the value of the company’s assets and to place the club on a firm footing for the future.

‘We feel for the fans, the manager and the players as in the short term the club will suffer a points deduction from the Football League, but hopefully the long term prospects will overcome the short term disadvantage.’

The administrators will be looking for prospective buyers to put proposals to the creditors before end of December 2007.

Guilfoyle also confirmed that the Football Association charges against the club will not be affected by administration. The Football Association’s charges still stand and are a matter for the Association to pursue.

Guilfoyle continured: ‘The survival of this historic club will depend on finding a purchaser. We will do everything we can to find such a buyer.’

David Pinkney has agreed to continue to fund the trading losses of the club and due to his commitment Luton can continue their fixtures.

However, the FA has imposed the mandatory 10 point penalty for going into administration leaving the club rock bottom of League 1.

Guilfoyle urged fans to get behind the club to ensure its long term future saying: ‘The Hatters is a great football club with more than 100 years of history behind it and it needs your support now more than ever.’

The other administrators are John Russell and Chris White of The P&A Partnership.

From information I received this evening, I believe there is more to this action than meets the eye.

My source told me that he understood the FA had told Luton Town that they face a massive fine if found guilty of the charges, possibly well over £1 million and also potentially a 15 points deduction.

If this is true then it would seem prudent to get rid of the debt in the process of administration, since a 15 point deduction would almost certainly relegate the club and therefore the ten point deduction for administration would not make any difference.

It does seem rather strange that a club supposedly losing up to £3 million per year should need to go into administration when in excess of £13 million has been, or is in the process of being paid to the club after player sales, plus the fact that David Pinkney had previously agreed to fund the trading losses of the club anyway.

I’m no mathemetician but shouldn’t £13 million have funded the trading loss for four years?

Another factor in the decision to appoint the administrators could be the impending law suit by Mike Newell, who, if successful which was likely, would now presumably only get pence in the pound of any award from such a suit.

My informant also told me that there was more to Mike Newell’s revelations to the FA than has been made public, and that is not to say that Mike Newell has done anything wrong, but the FA certainly seem to want to hang Luton out to dry to make a point. I cannot go into those details for obvious reasons.

What I will say is as far as the charges against Luton are concerned is that there but for the grace of God ( and the FA) go at least 71 of the other 91 clubs in the football league system.