Over the last few weeks, the local press has been reporting on a proposed development of housing and leisure to the West of Luton.  This development includes plans to construct a stadium for Luton Town FC.

The individuals and organisations behind this project approached me - as well as leaders of other fans groups - to share the details of their plans and this openness is welcomed.  I am hopeful that this spirit of transparency will continue.

The plans are at a very early stage but do sound interesting and we will keep a watch on any developments over the next few weeks and months. However, despite the potential behind this proposal, TiL are 100% behind the Independent Feasibility Study (IFS) cornerstone that 2020 built into their bid to take over the club. The cornerstones were an integral part of 2020's long-term plan, which the three main supporters' groups signed up to and TiL continue to back these fully. We await the IFS report and are very much looking forward to seeing it completed and published, with recommendations, so we can all properly focus on a particular option. This stance has been explained to the team behind the West Luton plan and they accept and understand our position.

Liam

Chairman's Statement

The dust has now settled on the fact that we are, once more, going to Wembley - the fifth time we have visited the national stadium in the last 21 years.  A superb achievement for a club that is continually fighting one crisis or another.  Congratulations go to the playing staff, management team and, of course, the 2020 directors and investors.

Now the initial joy of reaching the final has subsided, I thought it appropriate to share my thoughts on the issues that surround the day of the final.

Firstly, it is fully understandable if Luton fans want to organise some form of protest on the day.  With the way the club and its fans have been treated by the football authorities, it is inevitable and right and proper.  We are playing in the final of a Football League competition, at the home of the Football Association and the opportunity to make our feelings towards the footballing authorities known, is too great to pass up.  TiL are not organising anything official but, as long as it is peaceful, we fully support any protest that materialises on the day.  If the protests are peaceful, then the wider football world will have more sympathy over how we've been treated and, more importantly, have even more respect for our fanbase.  I urge every Luton fan to get involved in anything that is being organised.  If we speak with one loud voice it will be a very impressive display of unity and defiance, which will show to the footballing world that we will not go away and that we are very much alive and kicking.

Secondly, can I please urge you all to buy your merchandise, in advance, from the football club?  Buying from street vendors (either in Luton or, on the day itself, in London) will not be doing LTFC any favours.   

Thirdly, and linked to the protests, please DO NOT buy anything once inside Wembley Stadium.  The two finalists will not benefit from you buying food and drink in the ground.  The only organisation who will profit from these purchases is the FA and under no circumstances do we want to be filling their coffers after the malicious punishment they handed down to this club.  Buying match programmes is a greyer area and TiL has no strong feelings either way, so I think this is a buying decision that is down to individuals.

Lastly, just enjoy the day and make as much noise as you can!

Liam

I was contacted by an independent Luton supporter, with a background in law, in August regarding the FA's points deduction.  His name is Mark Carlisle and, like the rest of us, was angry with the 10 points deduction, which the FA handed out to Luton Town FC. 

As a result, he, again like many of us, entered into a lengthy correspondence with the FA (which he shared with me) over the summer to seek answers and explanations for the vindictive punishment meted out to LTFC. 

Mark wasn't happy with the FA's responses to his questions, so contacted the Independent Football Ombudsman (IFO) - a body recently set up to act like a 'watchdog' for football.

The IFO have now completed their adjudication and this is linked here.

You will notice, in the adjudication report, that one of Mark's perfectly reasonable complaints was that Luton were singled out and punished severely when some transfers, which the Stevens Inquiry was concerned with, were/are seemingly ignored by the FA.  This, coupled with the fact that Newcastle Utd's and Birmingham City's transfer activities were criticised by VAT tribunals (probably a more serious concern than paying agents through a non-club bank account, I would have thought) but also seemingly ignored by the authorities, exposes huge inconsistencies in the way the FA enforce their own transfer regulations.  You will further notice that in the IFO's 'findings', there is no mention of Stevens/Newcastle/Birmingham - despite it being referred to in the summary of Mark's complaint earlier on in the report. This is very surprising.  For your information, the IFO investigators and authors of the adjudication report were Professor Derek Fraser - a Newcastle fan - and Mr Alan Watson - a Birmingham fan!!

More details on the Birmingham and Newcastle cases can be found below:

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2007/612.html (Newcastle)

Important passages -

paragraph 16 "Newcastle had falsely declared......."

paragraph 19 "Again, the documents and behaviour of the club and the agent present a very misleading picture"

paragraph 20 "...the various declarations submitted to the FA were completed inaccurately in so far as they purported to show that the agent acted solely for the club"

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/uk/cases/UKVAT/2007/V20151.html (Birmingham)

Important passages -

paragraph 40 "The further document completed by BCFC claimed, falsely as Ms.Brady accepted...."

paragraph 41 "While it is understandable, even if reprehensible, that BCFC should represent falsely to the FA that it had a written agreement...."

paragraph 46 "As in other cases, it is also falsely claimed that there was an antecedent written agreement between BCFC and the agent"

paragraph 48 "BCFC falsely claimed that there was a written agreement between it and the agent"

paragraph 61 "...the claim in the documentation sent to the FA was no more than window-dressing"

paragraph 62 "...we are satisfied that the FIFA and FA rules were observed somewhat casually, and in some respects hardly at all, and we should add that we are satisfied (partly from the evidence we heard and partly from the Quest report) that BCFC was by no means the only club whose respect for the rules was less than strict"

paragraph 63 "It can safely be said that it is not possible to take the documentary evidence produced by BCFC at face value. As we have already mentioned, BCFC was prepared to assert to the FA that it had a written agreement with an agent when that was plainly not the case" and, further on "We have also commented on the superficial - indeed ineffectual - supervision of transfer negotiations practised by the FA at the time"

paragraph 65 "It is not surprising that many (though not all) clubs and agents were somewhat casual in their approach to the rules, when the chances of being penalised for non compliance were negligible, if not non existent"

paragraph 70 "We are satisfied that the statements in the documents produced to the FA that the agents who had representation agreements with the players instead represented BCFC are untrue"

Just to clarify, Mark is not involved with the Trust or any other fans organisation but, like many of us, took it upon himself to pressure the FA into answers.  I and my Trust colleagues are grateful for the excellent work Mark has done on behalf of all Luton fans on this.  I also congratulate everyone who took the time to write to the FA, during the summer, to express their anger and dismay at the FA's outrageous decision.

LLSC, LTSC and I are meeting the FA on the 28th October and will report back.

The adjudication is linked here.

Up the Hatters

Liam

Dear Hatter,

As you know, the FA have unjustly deducted Luton Town FC 10 points for a very minor breach of their rules.

You also may or may not know that the Luton News is running a campaign to bring pressure to bear on the FA to quash that ruling.

The Luton News campaign is the most visible and high profile of many of the petition/pledge campaigns that have sprung up out of this abysmal FA decision. This is a great opportunity for the fans, as signing up to the Luton News campaign in large numbers would be a massive Public Relations coup for both supporters and the club.

It has been decided that this should be a cut out, complete and send style petition rather than an on-line one. In today's age of mass electronic communication, written petitions carry far more weight than electronic ones.

As chairman of the Trust, I'm e-mailing all members (and asking non-members where I can, too) to please sign up to the Luton News campaign. Cut out and copy a dozen of the petition forms, fill one in for yourself and then give the others to your friends and family - whether they support Luton or not.

Let's show the FA that we are not going to be pushed around and that we are going to fight this injustice, to allow Luton Town FC to finally move on from a dreadful couple of years.

Please follow one of the links below (Luton Today's website and also the Trust's web page that is dedicated to this) to sign up.

http://trustinluton.org/default.aspx

http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/lut/HATTERS-Sign-up-for-justice.4173078.jp

Thanks

Liam