Luton Town and their rise from the Conference to the Premier League in just 14 years is one of football's most incredible stories, and it all started with a 30-point deduction when they were in League Two.
Having suffered back-to-back relegations from the Championship and League One in 2006/07 and 2007/08, Luton were preparing for life in the fourth tier of English football. However, a month before the 2008/09 season had even started, a combined 30-point shortfall left Luton Town staring another relegation in the face, and a depressing drop into non-league for the first time in 89 years.
Initially deducted 10 points by the FA for financial irregularities when dealing with agents dating back several years, Luton were then deducted a further 20 , the most severe punishment handed out by the Football League, because of a failure to secure an insolvency agreement that satisfied HMRC.
Mick Harford, Luton legend and manager at the time, remembers receiving the news that the club would be starting with an unprecedented -30 points.
“It was a sad day,” Harford tells FourFourTwo. “As a club, we believed we could overcome it. When you look back, they should have just relegated us, so we could start afresh. It was a massive burden to carry 30 points.”
Rotherham and Bournemouth were both hit with 17-point deductions in the same division that year but survived – the latter after appointing Eddie Howe as manager mid-season, setting them on a path that took them all the way to the Premier League.
For Luton, 30 points was too much to claw back – they finished bottom, relegated after a draw at home to Chesterfield, with four games to play. Until 2014, for five seasons, they remained marooned in the Conference.
“Docking us 30 points was a death sentence as a Football League club,” says Luton supporter Steve Moore. “Our fans still have a flag saying ‘betrayed by the FA’. We still sing songs about it.”
“We were still able to attract some very good players to the club,” says Harford, who was in charge throughout the season. “We signed Chris Martin on loan and others.
"You’d think players wouldn’t want to sign for a club with a 30-point deduction, but they did because of our size. Relegation was really tough and hit me quite hard. I was the manager, so I felt responsible.
"People would say, ‘Mick, don’t worry about it, you had a 30-point deduction, what chance have you got?’ But I always believe that if I’m facing any challenge, I’ll come out the other side.”
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