Before you start reading, I'd like to apologise. This article was meant to be about Kevin Nicholls getting a five match ban, but instead it seems to have ended up as a rant at the footballing authorities, no doubt the result of months of anger that has built up finally being released; the anger coming from the fact that, according to points, there are nine teams worse than us in League Two, yet we're still the ones being relegated. The league should be about who has the best team, not which team has accumulated the least amount of points deductions. 74 points have been unfairly taken by the authorities this season from League Two, yet the competition has no more integrity than before, with one team in administration, and a handful more still struggling financially. Thankfully Luton aren't one of those, no thanks to the FA and FL. Anyway, part one of the rant over, and I apologise if my arguments aren't as clear as they should be. It's not totally down to me being stupid, that's only part of the reason. The other part is the anger impairing my judgment.
Luton captain Kevin Nicholls has been handed a five match ban by the Football Association for improper conduct after the Trevor Kettle Show in January. Nicholls' behaviour of applauding the Luton fans after the match appears to have been controversial in the eyes of the FA. A lot more controversial than those of, say, Chris Morgan, who put another player in hospital with a fractured skull earlier on in the season but got no ban as he had already been booked. His ban is also two games longer than the one Didier Drogba received earlier in the season. Drogba was given a three match ban for throwing a coin at Burnley fans during their Carling Cup tie earlier in the season, as well as making an offensive gesture towards the travelling Burnley fans. Maybe I'm missing something here, but surely throwing a coin and making an offensive gesture towards opposing fans is more inciting than what Nicholls did in our match. Of course I'm missing something - Drogba plays for a big club, Nicholls doesn't.
Bizarrely, Nicholls' ban doesn't come into effect until 7th April, a couple of days after Luton play in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final, meaning that Nico will miss the league games against Lincoln, Barnet, Chesterfield, Wycombe and Rochdale. This could be the FA showing some compassion and allowing the Luton captain to lead his team out at Wembley against Scunthorpe. Although it's more likely that the FA are trying to hammer the final nail in our relegation coffin by making him miss five league games rather than four (although it would probably make little difference either way). What other explanation is there? Is there a simple one I'm missing? If there was any justice, then Nico would pick up an injury by slipping over at Wembley whilst collecting the trophy (or losers medals), whilst accidentally headbutting the FL or FA official present in the process, and with him being ruled out until the start of May with an injury, just in time for him to return and fire in the goal that keeps Luton up at Brentford. Although to be honest that scenario is very unlikely.
Trevor Kettle has somehow managed to escape any kind of punishment for his part in the fiasco in the home game against Bradford City. He hasn't even been reprimanded for his performance, despite managing to annoy and puzzle every single person in the crowd that day with his performance. Not only was the penalty a bizarre one to give, but the free-kick leading to our second goal was a ridiculous one to give. He also sent Stuart McCall from the bench to the dressing room. At least that was what he thought he did. Instead, McCall went and sat in the executive boxes about fifty metres from the away bench, with both sets of players warming up right in front of him. The list of Kettle's stupid mistakes goes on and on, and listing them all would take up too much time, yet Kettle goes unpunished for a shocking performance (not for the first time either). Surely his bad decision making was more inciting than Nicholls applauding the fans? Mick Harford was unhappy with Kettle's performance, Stuart McCall was unhappy with his performance, the Luton fans were unhappy with his performance and the Bradford fans were unhappy with his performance, doesn't that tell the FA something? Obviously it doesn't, and Kettle is still refereeing.
As well as the charges to Nicholls, Mick Harford was fined £1000 for his conduct and comments, and the club were fined £2000 for failing to control their players, whilst Bradford City manager Stuart McCall has also been fined. So basically, John Mitchell gets a £250 fine for blatantly disregarding regulations for three years or so and nearly destroying a football club and a business well over 100 years old, and Mick Harford gets four times the fine for a few choice words he said in the heat of the moment. I can't think of anything that he said that wouldn't have been true about Mr Kettle either to be honest. The extra £3000 will undoubtedly go towards the next bottle of Chardonnay that will be sipped by the officials in Soho Square whilst they make up more rules as they go along, rather than looking at precedents, or looking at whether the clubs involved fit their criteria of being a big club or not. Worryingly, that could actually be close to the truth as to where the money goes from the fines. It's not the first time that the FA have made up rules as they go along either. There is, of course, the 10 point debacle over the summer, which had no precedent, saw the wrong people being punished and was implemented despite the FA having no apparent jurisdiction over the Football League (although they're both as badly organised and inept as each other). Even last season, after deciding they didn't want to waste any time on looking over a Luton appeal against a Chris Coyne red card, the FA decided to increase Coyne's ban by one game due to the appeal being 'frivolous'. And to think that 'fans' of the big four teams rant on about them being treated badly by the footballing authorities!
The handling of the ticketing for the Football League Trophy, Johnstone's Paint Trophy, whatever they call it, has also been shambolic by the footballing authorities. The allocation of seating has meant that Luton aren't allowed to sell any more tickets, despite demand far exceeding supply. Whilst it is true that not even the most optimistic Luton fan could have expected the demand for tickets for the JPT Final to be so high, it is also true that any well run and organised would have a contingency plan should there be extra demand. 2020 were very confident of selling 30,000 tickets before they went on sale, so therefore it should have been noted by the footballing authorities that a demand of 40,000 in the Luton end wouldn't be beyond the realms of fantasy, which it wasn't, as it turns out. The Scunthorpe tickets have been selling more slowly than the Luton tickets, with 11,500 Scunny fans due to be in attendance at the time of writing. There probably would have been more had the kick-off time been arranged so that anyone wishing to catch a train from Scunthorpe would have got to Wembley in time, rather than an hour after kick-off, but that's another matter. The simple solution would have been to give Luton some of the unsold tickets from the Scunthorpe end, but because of worries about segregation, this isn't going to happen. Never mind that supporters are allowed to walk up Wembley Way without being segregated, once inside Wembley, those Luton fans are obviously going to be ripping up the new ground and hurling seats at the Scunthorpe fans. Wake up footballing authorities. Luton haven't reached Wembley for 15 years, Scunthorpe 10 years. Both sets of fans are there to enjoy the occasion, not to fight each other. There hasn't been any trouble at any Wembley matches in recent history, and there is no history between Luton and Scunthorpe, all you're doing is denying both clubs any extra gate receipts. You're also denying yourselves any more money, as those extra supporters are missing out on purchasing your ridiculously overpriced food and drink that probably tastes like it has been kept since last year's play-off finals anyway. How they expect to run a World Cup when they can't maximise money made from a Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final, I will never know. I don't even know if it is the FA or the FL responsible for what has happened, they're both as bad as each other in my eyes. I would send an email about it to both of them, but I don't want to waste my time reading the generic reply I will get back from them. Ok, rant over.