'Dreadful' - Luton Town slammed by FA ahead of crunch Hull City meeting

Hull City will face a Luton Town outfit next weekend described by the FA as having a "dreadful" record of behaviour after being slapped with a £15,000 fine for their players' behaviour against Sunderland last month.

The Hatters, who sit two places below City at the bottom end of the Championship table, were fined after a mass confrontation following their 2-1 defeat to the leaders at Kenilworth Road on October 23. But the severity of their fine has been increased by the disciplinary panel owing to what it describes as a 'dreadful' record and suggests Town are doing 'precious little' to stop their players reacting in such a way.

In the last four years alone, Luton have been forced to pay £57,000 in fines for incidents during or after games with Swansea City in June 2020 which cost them £5,000 and the amount again two years later against Huddersfield Town in April 2022. That £5,000 rose to £8,500 in August 2022 following clashes with Bristol City, and again continued to rise with a £10,000 fine last February after clashes with Burnley before hitting £13,500 in March 2023 after more issues with the Swans.

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"Both clubs admitted that they failed to ensure their players and/or technical area staff didn’t behave in an improper and provocative way after the final whistle," the FA said in a statement confirming the Black Cats were fined £7,000 for their role in the ugly scenes.

“This was another example of an unnecessary and unsightly demonstration of players being unable to control themselves. In terms of their role within the confrontation, a distinction has to be drawn between the Clubs for the fact that LTFC instigated the confrontation," the findings continued.

"Thereafter, players from each Club played an equal part. The particular aggravating feature of this mass confrontation is that both Clubs have previous offences of failing to control their players. That is particularly so in the case of LTFC. LTFC are amassing an appalling record of E20 offences (improper conduct by players, officials, and clubs at matches).

“It is clear to us that LTFC are doing precious little to curtail the lack of self-control that their players suffer from. Unless and until the Club takes serious and positive action to modify the behaviour of its playing staff then the sanctions imposed upon them are only going to increase. We take into account those mitigating features that we have set out above and principally to both Clubs' admission of the Charge, and we give credit for that.

“In LTFC's case we take a starting point of a fine of £10,000 to reflect that they instigated the confrontation. We then increase their starting point to a fine of £20,000 to reflect the substantial aggravating feature of their dreadful disciplinary record. We then reduce that to take account of their admission to a fine of £15,000.”

Incidentally, Rob Edwards' side have picked up 35 yellow cards and three reds in their opening 15 games, while City have 26 yellows and no reds from the same period.