Rotherham to start with -17 points

After the Football League discussed the cases of Rotherham United and AFC Bournemouth today, "The Board" decided that Rotherham should be deducted 17 points for this season, the club must pay its unsecured creditors the amount offered, and that Rotherham have no right to appeal should they accept the offer that "The Board" has made them, which of course they will have to. The latter clause of the offer was also made by "The Board" to Luton, and it got overlooked by a lot of the media (either that or "The Board" tried to keep it quiet), but Rotherham have had three points less taken off than Luton had by the FL (the 10 points being from the FA). Rotherham also have to guarantee that they will be moving back to Rotherham in the next four years, after Rotherham requested to play at Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.

Presumably, "The Board" will also be ensuring that MK Dons will be moving back to Wimbledon very soon as well. Nope, didn't think so. As a Luton fan who doesn't know a lot about the Rotherham situation, I can't say whether Rotherham deserve more punishment than Luton, the same punishment or less punishment. Actually I can, I don't think either club should have points deductions, but that aside, it would be interesting to hear where this figure of -17 came from. The precedent appeared to be set when Leeds were deducted 15 last season. Luton were then deducted 20, but this was apparently because we'd been in administration two times before (not that this is the fault of the new consortium of course). Rotherham have also been in administration before; but only once that I can remember, and they've been deducted 17 points. Some people would say that the deduction varies on previous records with administrations, others might say that the FL are cluelessly making everything up as they go along, I'll let you make your own decision.

One other thing regarding Bournemouth on the Football League site was that "The Board" aren't yet satisfied with the viability of the new company's proposals, so they will make another decision tomorrow, possibly so that it allows "The Board" to have an all expenses paid breakfast at a five star hotel, giving them time to get the champagne in to celebrate pushing yet another football club towards extinction, who knows? All things considered, it doesn't look good for Bournemouth either, so here's hoping that all three clubs deservedly stay up next season.