Luton furious as English Football League fines 12 clubs for breaching ‘full strength’ policy

The English Football League has fined 12 clubs for breaching its ‘full strength’ policy in the Checkatrade Trophy.

League Two side Luton have issued an angry response after they received the maximum penalty of £15,000.

Competition rule 7.3 dictates that starting line-ups must include five players that started the previous or following match, or include five of the starting 11 that has made the most appearances in all domestic competitions.

Luton and Portsmouth have been fined £5,000 per match for three matches in which they have been deemed to have failed to comply with the rule, totalling at £15,000 each.

Fellow fourth-tier side Blackpool as well as League One clubs Bradford City, Bristol Rovers, Fleetwood, MK Dons, Millwall, Charlton, Peterborough, Sheffield United and Southend have all been fined £3000.

All 12 clubs have the right to appeal to the EFL Board, who have stated that the remaining 36 clubs complied fully, with Bradford confirming to Sky Sports News HQ that they would take up their right of appeal.

Bradford were penalised for "transgressions not within the spirit of the rules" over the decision to substitute 'keeper Colin Doyle just two minutes into their game against Bury.

The Hatters beat League One Gillingham and Premier League side West Brom's U21s to qualify for the knockout stages with a game to spare, and chief executive Gary Sweet said: "We are staggered that we have been fined the maximum amount for our first offence.

"We played nine graduates of our academy in that game at Gillingham, and seven against a West Brom side containing four players, two of whom who were internationals and had been transferred for several million pounds, and still beat both.

"We acknowledge our breach of the competition rules, but does our 'offence' make a mockery of the competition any more than a club substituting their first-choice goalkeeper after just a couple of minutes of the game to ensure they met the five-player starting rule?

"Which is more in keeping with the spirit of the game? Which supports the competition's ethos of promoting young talent more?

"That is clearly disingenuous and by fining us this amount the EFL is effectively saying that promoting young talent is only acceptable if they're with an EPPP1 club, and they are depriving their own member clubs' young players access to first-team football."