Luton Town could start next season on minus 25 points after the Coca-Cola League Two club were found guilty by the FA yesterday of 15 misconduct charges, involving payments to agents. The governing body fined Luton £50,000 and ruled that the relegated club must start next season with a ten-point deduction. Matters could get worse on Monday, when the club may be deducted a further 15 points by the Football League for the way they are planning to come out of administration.

“I’m sure we will be appealing against the FA’s decision,” Mick Harford, the Luton manager, said. “I back what they have done in finding the perpetrators, but I think the penalty and fine are totally unfair and unjustified. The people who were involved in all this are no longer at the club. Why are we being punished for their crimes? I’m shocked and taken aback.”

The charges were issued against the club in November last year after the FA investigated allegations that had been made by Mike Newell, the club’s former manager, in January 2006. The FA discovered that undisclosed payments totalling £160,000 had been made to agents while Bill Tomlins was chairman.

Tomlins has been fined £15,000 and banned from football for five years in respect of 13 charges of misconduct. Derek Peter, the former financial director, was banned from the game for a year and fined £3,750 in relation to seven charges, while Richard Bagehot and John Mitchell, the former directors, were fined £750 and £250 respectively and reprimanded for “failing to immediately report the relevant wrongdoing to the Football League”.

The six agents involved in the case — Andrew Mills, Sky Andrew, Steven Denos, Mike Berry, David Manasseh and Mark Curtis — were warned as to their future conduct over a charge of “failing to have in place a written representation contract with Luton Town Football Club”.

Peter Griffiths, QC, the chairman of the FA’s regulatory commission, said: “After exhaustive inquiries we are satisfied that there were no bungs or backhanders passed on to agents to facilitate the transfer of players and no corruption. Having said that, there can be no doubt that Luton Town Football Club, between July 2004 and February 2007, was run with a flagrant disregard for the regulations laid down to protect the game.

“At the heart of the allegations laid against both Luton Town Football Club and two of its directors, Mr Bill Tomlins and Mr Derek Peter, was the routing of payments to agents not through the Football Association, as ought to have occurred, but through an associated company.”

Luton were deducted ten points by the Football League for entering administration last November and are scheduled to be taken over by a new consortium next week. “We will appeal and we will get through this,” Harford said. “We’ll do what it takes.”