Luton Town condemned for their 'appalling' and 'dreadful' disciplinary record

Luton have been criticised for having an ‘appalling record’ of improper conduct by their players and officials after being fined a further £15,000 by the FA following a 'mass confrontation’ after their 2-1 defeat to Sunderland recently.

The Hatters’ latest punishment takes the total the club have now been fined in the last four years to £57,000. This includes incidents against Swansea City (£5,000 in June 2020), Huddersfield Town (£5,000 in April 2022), Bristol City (£8,500 in August 2022), Burnley (£10,000 in February 2023) and Swansea (£13,500 in March 2023).

Following the decision to hit Town with their latest five figure amount, the independent Regulatory Commission stated that the level of Luton’s financial punishment has now been increased due to their ‘dreadful’ record, as it said: “This was another example of an unnecessary and unsightly demonstration of players being unable to control themselves. In terms of their role within the confrontation, a distinction has to be drawn between the Clubs for the fact that LTFC instigated the confrontation.

"Thereafter, players from each Club played an equal part. The particular aggravating feature of this mass confrontation is that both Clubs have previous offences of failing to control their players. That is particularly so in the case of LTFC. LTFC are amassing an appalling record of E20 offences (improper conduct by players, officials, and clubs at matches).

“It is clear to us that LTFC are doing precious little to curtail the lack of self-control that their players suffer from. Unless and until the Club takes serious and positive action to modify the behaviour of its playing staff then the sanctions imposed upon them are only going to increase. We take into account those mitigating features that we have set out above and principally to both Clubs' admission of the Charge, and we give credit for that.

“In LTFC's case we take a starting point of a fine of £10,000 to reflect that they instigated the confrontation. We then increase their starting point to a fine of £20,000 to reflect the substantial aggravating feature of their dreadful disciplinary record. We then reduce that to take account of their admission to a fine of £15,000.”