FA throw the book at Luton over agent payments

The Football Association issued more than 50 charges relating to transfers, loan deals and contract negotiations at the club between July 2004 and February 2007.

It is the result of an eight-month investigation into Luton, first exposed by Sportsmail in May.

The Kenilworth Road club have been hit with 17 charges of making illegal payments to agents through their holding company, Jayten Stadium Ltd, misleading the FA, not holding the right contracts and dealing with unnamed unlicensed agents.

Their former chairman Bill Tomlins faces multiple charges as does former finance director Derek Peter. Current directors John Mitchell and Richard Bagehot are also charged with failing to report the alleged rule breaches.

Six licensed agents — Sky Andrew, Mike Berry, Mark Curtis, Steve Denos, David Manasseh and Andrew Mills — have been charged. All parties have until the end of the month to respond.

The payments total £160,000 and the root of the problem is that Luton paid the agents through their holding company Jayten.

In May, Tomlins confessed to Sportsmail: 'Yes, I broke the rules, there's no doubt about it, but I didn't murder anyone or do anything illegal. I did wrong and it's now up to the FA to decide what will happen.'

Tomlins claimed he had decided to operate this way in order to deal with agents behind the back of Luton manager Mike Newell.

'Michael became a nightmare with agents,' Tomlins had told the FA when interviewed by members of their Financial Regulation Department. In 2006, Newell had embarked on what seemed like a personal crusade against rotten agents and what became known as 'football's bung culture'.

He claimed he had been offered cash to sign players and that the practice was rife within the industry and went to the FA with his information.

After a separate investigation by Panorama and comments by then England coach Sven Goran Eriksson, football's authorities launched an inquiry led by Lord Stevens and his Quest team.

Newell was sacked in March with three years to run on his £400,000-a-year contract and is still out of work, but yesterday he insisted the FA charges vindicated his decision to speak out about events at Kenilworth Road.

He said: 'It ultimately cost me my job but people will now understand the reasons why I went public and spoke to the FA. I considered it my duty as the manager of a football club to make the authorities aware of what was going on.

'A lot of mud has been thrown in my direction and I haven' t responded to any of it over the eight months since my sacking.'

Luton, relegated from the Championship last season, lie 17th in League One, seven points off the bottom. A heavy points deduction would plunge them deep into relegation trouble.

In 1990, Swindon, just promoted to the old First Division, were demoted two divisions after admitting 35 illegal payments to players. They were eventually reinstated to the Second Division after a High Court appeal.

These offences are unlikely to be considered serious enough for Luton to be automatically demoted but the FA have the power to impose a points deduction, fines and/or a transfer ban.

The agents face charges which are likely to be viewed as a less serious 'technical' breach.

Andrew said: 'Everything has been declared to the Government, all VAT has been paid. It's very much a technical situation. I don't want people to think I've done something financially wrong or get the wrong end of the stick. The FA have a job to do. I will go along to the hearing and make sure our case is put forward.'

Mills claims he has not wilfully done anything wrong and supports the FA 'crusade against wrongdoing'.

He said: 'Technically the club and agent are jointly responsible but in most cases the club handles the paperwork.'

Luton released a statement acknowledging the charges but making no further comment.