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It's a rare day when I'd stand with Leeds and Luton fans in calling the Football League a joke - but they've managed it today.
In deducting Stockport ten points this season they have turned their own rules into a farce. Designed to punish clubs that overspend - a fact that Stockport cannot deny being guilty of due to their overwhelming debts - the League have turned themselves into a mockery in barely two and a half hours.
That is the time from the announcement of their Administration to the Football League's announcement on punishment. It took the League five days to put the correct people into a room to consider Southampton's plight, before taking a further 16 days to determine their punishment - and then leaving the penalty dependent on results.
So how can they do it so swiftly, and so definitely, in this case?
Southampton's Administrator accused the FL of having sufficient grey area in their rules for them to be bent in whichever direction the FL chose. While Southampton got the 'wrong' direction it appears Stockport got the 'right' course. And very quickly.
The creditor that forced Stockport into Administration is also party to one of the bids to take the club over. As a secured creditor, one of the few outside of football debts thesedays, they would hold financial sway over the conclusion of a CVA - a deal that would see Stockport incur no further penalty on top of the virtually pointless penalty they have received today.
Back in the summer of 2007 FL chairman Lord Malwhinney, commenting on the rules being tightened after the Leeds affair, said: "Clubs should suffer a sporting penalty as a consequence of going into administration, as this acts as a spur to better financial management."
Explain this 'penalty', Brian.
