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Bournemouth to start season with 17-point deduction

08/08/2008

Bournemouth are to follow Rotherham in being handed a 17-point deduction for League Two next season.

Having been unable to agree a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) to exit administration, the south coast club join Rotherham in beginning the 2008-09 campaign with a severe handicap.

The Cherries have until noon on Friday to accept the penalty, which is conditional on their signing a waiver removing their right to appeal.

Both Bournemouth and Rotherham have failed to meet the Football League's standard conditions for exiting administration.

However, a statement from the Football League board said it was "prepared to exercise its absolute discretion under the 'exceptional circumstances' provisions of its insolvency policy."

Rotherham's penalty is ostensibly the same as that handed to Bournemouth, though the Yorkshire side is also committed to guaranteeing a return to Rotherham within four years.

Following financial difficulties Rotherham were forced to leave Millmoor, their home for more than a century, and will play at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield from the start of the new season.

Neither Bournemouth nor Rotherham have been handed a penalty as severe as that faced by Luton Town, who will begin the 2008/09 season with a 30-point penalty after failing to comply with the Football League's rules regarding entering and exiting administration.

They had already been hit with a ten-point penalty by the Football Association in relation to the club's misconduct over the paying of agents.

And a penalty of 20 points was given to the club in mid-July because the new company - Luton Town 2020, which effectively replaces the old club - was unable to agree a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), in line with League rules.