Biggest Points Deductions in English Football

The country where football originated, England, also established their leagues and set of rules for them a long time ago. No league wants anarchy, but what actually happens when some clubs break the rules? One of the oldest ways to punish a club is to deduct a certain amount of points from their total score in a particular season.

As many of us know, this happened lots of times in the past. So, I thought it would be a cool idea to see some of the biggest points deductions in English football. Are these deductions justified? I’ll let you be the judge.

Luton Town – 30 Points Deduction

Up until now, there hasn’t been a club in English football with a bigger amount of points deducted than Luton. In the 2008/2009 season of League Two, the officials decided to deduct 10 points from Luton’s score for financial misconduct and another 20 for not being able to leave administration.

Derby County’s – 21 Points

Not long ago, Derby County had to say goodbye to the 21 points in the 2021/22 Championship season. This club’s entering administration caused them to lose 12, and their breaching profit and sustainability rules made them lose nine points, which resulted in them losing a total of 21 points and entering a major crisis.

Bournemouth and Rotherham’s 17-Point Deduction Punishment

The 2008/2009 season was harsh for several clubs in League Two. Both Bournemouth and Rotherham’s stories are very similar to Derby’s. In other words, these clubs underwent relegation to League Two after a 10-point deduction because they entered administration.

One season later, these teams couldn’t exit administration. This led the officials to take 17 points off of both of them. As you can see, most of these points deductions were because of clubs’ financial instability.

Leeds United’s -15 in League One

The pattern seems to be obvious here. A club enters administration, cannot exit it, and suffers a points deduction. The same thing happened to Leeds during the 2007/2008 season.

The Whites went from the Champions League to the League One. Many fans were in shock and were afraid that this club could stop existing.

Luckily, Leeds survived and went back to the Premier League again.

Everton’s Most Recent -10 in the Premier League

One of the latest examples of points-docking also involves Everton. Not only is this one of the most recent instances of clubs losing points in English football, but the Premier League points deduction history shows us that Everton is number one on the list of the highest deductions.

After breaching the financial fair play this season and losing 10 points, the Toffees found themselves in the relegation zone of the Premier League. Interestingly, we could see fewer Premier League point-dockings in comparison to the lower-tier leagues.

The only similar occasion in the Premier League points deduction history was in 2010, where the executives punished Portsmouth by docking nine points off of their score because this club, like many others, entered administration.