Re Dublin Sean :- As a Liverpool fan of some standing I can still remember Luton not turning up at Anfield in 1987 for an FA Cup game due to 'fog' despite their fans managing to make it. Also never forgiven them for their politics during that time and their plastic pitch.

Let's not let on the Luton are an unforunate club here. They are in administration because they have broken several rules and whilst I feel for the fans and staff at Luton Town, Liverpool FC have no obligation to them.

Also, Liverpool have made massive efforts to help Wrexham over the last 3 or 4 years by playing friendlys at the Racecourse every season and letting them keep the gate receipts. Get the facts right before you comment about 'selfish big clubs'

Gaz, Liverpool,

This just about says it all.

http://playinginthegutter.blogspot.com/2008/01/miseryside.html

pentangelli, Southport, Merseyside

Isn't it repulsive how Liverpool continues to portray itself as the community club with old moral values?
It's planning a new £200m stadium - after trying to get £23m of taxpayers' cash to help build the monolith - but has cold-heartedly rejected the desperate and grave appeals of an embattled club in administration and facing threatened extinction.
This isn't just about money.
Luton is a League 1 side fighting relegation that simply wants to survive.
So much for the romanticism of the Cup!
Let's hope this finally exposes the fallacy of Liverpool FC's 'honest Jim' image.

sean murphy, Dublin, Ireland

As a Luton Town supporter I am, in all honesty, fed up and quite frankly embarrassed at the whole scenario.

And this 'going cap-in-hand' business to Liverpool, revealed this morning, hardly helps, especially before the game itself.

Now instead of everybody getting behind the underdog tomorrow, perhaps even having a bit of sympathy for us given our situation, they'll probably be hoping we get taught a lesson.

If we do get beat (but without Gerrard, and if Torres doesn't feature: who knows?) maybe instead of giving us a footballing lesson any prospective Luton owners should be given a lesson in how to run a football club properly.

Years of mis-management have finally caught up with us. Have you ever asked a friend for some money when you are desperate for cash? I have, and it is an uncomfortable position. Now I feel just as bad watching a 'professional' football club - the club I love - to do the same.

S Ketelaarss, Mid Bedfordshire,

I take it the below views are from people who support cash rich clubs!
Unfortunately in the real world where fans suffer from bad owners who have taken money out of the club and left them with nothing but huge debts these things happen.
yes its not liverpools problem but when there players are on 100k a week (which is what the players need just to get paid) you would think that this would be s small gesture to help a crisis club which faces folding, lets face it its a drop in the ocean for a premiership club.
The FA only help rich clubs and kick the rest in the teeth so all you none suffering fans below , get real!

adrian, hanworth, middx

In the coming recession, lots of minor league clubs will disappear. The economics of football no longer makes any sense.

To call Liverpool well managed is a joke. All premier league clubs are poorly managed but they get away with it becasue of the easy money of the premier league. In the next five years expect to see the Premier league implode under the financial pressures of falling incomes and player wages.

sholto, Edinburgh, UK

It is not Liverpool's responsibility to help Luton Football club!! Those who think it is are living in cloud cuckoo land. It is a harsh and unfair world out there and im afraid its Lutons problem and nobody elses.

I suggest better management is needed by those who run the club and the local community should get off there backsides and attend the matches to produce extra revenue!!

Liverpool, Man Ure, Everton, Chelsea etc etc have no interest in clubs like Luton, it is an FA cup tie , another game to them ..sounds harsh in this pathetic fluffy pc world but its true.

Derren Coles, Christchurch, NZ

Liverpool FC has financially helped out small clubs in its vicinity such as Tranmere many times.

Luton already stands to earn extra money from TV rights from this game and now has the audacity to ask Liverpool its ticket share. £100,000 won't make a huge difference to a club that is in this position because of its own mismanagement and corruption so don't try to point the finger at Liverpool.

Leivan, London, UK

I am a die hard and proud luton fan. It is a sad state of affairs going into administration for the third time in 10 years, and even worse that a super club will not offer us what to them is one players weekly wage.
We have struggled to survive due to the short sightedness of the local council in supporting our plans for a new stadium, and betrayed by the FA.
Let's win tomorrow and stay alive!!
Marcus, Northampton

Marcus Bates, Northampton, UK

Why on earth should Liverpool help a club that is currently being investigated for football corruption?

Its a level playing field and should be kept that way and fair for other clubs in its league not recieving financial incentives.

Amer, London,

Nice to see the kind hearted Liverpuddlians digging deep for anyone other than one of their own isn't it. Remind me, which club was it that got us banned from European competition again? Oh yes...the same club who's fans are moaning about when Luton banned away fans. There's a distinct difference between banning away fans and banning an entire country isn't there.

And why shouldn't Liverpool be expected to pay their own expenses to play against Luton. It isn't like they are strapped for cash is it...especially now that they are a US franchise club.
And the players certainly can't donate their wages as they'll need them for back up when they next get burgled.

Simon, Norwich, Norfolk

so who was it who got Luton,Everton and Wimbledon banned from Europe and were supposed to be banned for an extra three years themselves but were actually let straight back in at the same time as the rest?
Oh and when we thrashed Liverpool in the second replay at the Kenny didnt Ken make a compleat girls part of himself

John, Welwyn Garden,

well done liverpool, you should keep your money, after all, you are heading for another trophyless season and you need all the cash you can get. may be one day you can be called a BIG club who could afford a few pounds.

Gus, London,

As a liverpool fan I think it's a bit tight to reject luton's plea for financial assistance from the takings at kenilworth road and as a result I hope the luton players get really fired up and take liverpool apart. But being a realist, it's not going to happen is it!!!!

pete, landkey, UK

For more than 2 decades Luton Town have relied on development of the youth structure. A stream of players- products of the Luton Youth system- have made it to the big time over the years. It was always inevitable the best talent would be eventually sold- in fact it was expected to balance the books.
This combined with prudent spending allowed Luton at times to punch above their weight.
The assumption that Luton have lived beyond their means and now need to be punished is misguided. Look at the money that has come into the club through transfers in the past few years- Vine, Edwards, Davis... Where is this money? Where did it go?
Throughout this period the club has been in the hands of many different groups mainly interested in the property development opportunities of a new ground rather than the team.
Irrespective of what you think of the management of the club it will inevitably be the innocent fans who suffer.

S Brown, Sheffield, S. Yorks

Isn't it funny how Liverpool continues to portray itself as the community club with old moral values?
It's planning a new £200m stadium - after trying to get £23m of taxpayers' cash to help build the monolith - but has cold-heartedly rejected the desperate and grave appeals of an embattled club facing threatened extinction.
This isn't just about money.
Luton is a football club. And it wants to survive.
So much for the romanticism of the Cup!
Let's hope this finally exposes the fallacy of Liverpool FC's 'honest Jim' image.

sean murphy, Dublin, Ireland

John Mitchell and Richard Bagehot have agreed to step down from the Luton Town board after being charged with allegedly failing to report breaches of regulations regarding payments to agents.

And now the same club is going cap in hand to Liverpool asking them to give up money that is rightfully theirs? Tough.

Few clubs are as disliked as much as Luton, and few people outside of Bedfodshire will care if that horrible little club go to the wall. From the plastic pitch to the ban on away fans to Mitchell and Bagehot now. Good riddance.

Matt Pomroy, Dubai,

"As a Liverpool fan who had to blag my way into Kenilworth Road when they banned away fans, and had to endure their looney right wing chairman's diatribes, I have no sympathy for them. Their plastic pitch and failure to fulfil a cup game against Liverpool make them a pariah club. Relegation is too good for them.

S. wainwriht, Liverpool, "

Actually I'd say that a club whose fans riot at a European Cup Final, causing the deaths of opposition fans and getting the rest of the country's clubs banned from Europe is a tad more deserving of "pariah status" than one that had a plastic pitch.

Dan, London,

Luton Town a few years ago had a strong side, filled with some very good players. Curtis Davis now plays for Aston Villa, and Steve Howard for Derby County to name just two. Infact, in 2006 there was talk of Luton getting a new 20,000 seater stadium. What went wrong? As with Leeds United, in my opinion, Luton Town have been run into the ground by disastrous business decisions.
Selling your best players to bigger clubs for good money is how all smaller clubs have survived for years, but to sell your
entire first team as Luton Town did is just suicide. Liverpool are quite right in their decision. Its just business, and Luton
Town are not Liverpool's responsibility.
Nobody bailed Leeds United out in 2004 when they crashed out of topflight football and went bankrupt, and rightly so!
Stop trying to pass the buck Luton!

james steventon, lady lake, usa, florida

Luton were the club who bought a scoreboard before they put a roof on the away end and then banned visiting supporters (oh yes they installed a shelter that year didn't they?) and now they have the cheek to ask other clubs to bale them out. Quite right Liverpool for turning them down - it would be iniquitous to other clubs to do anything else.

Andrew Cottrell, Richmond,

Nigel Wroem i find it whole-heartedly offensive that you can compare the helping-hand in remembrance that so many clubs held out after Hilsbrough with a mis-managed club self-combusting because of poor money-management and lack of spending discipline. Liverpool are at the top because they are well managed, play good football, and are generally well looked after. It is not their responsibility to help out a club that is falling apart. You don't have a lowly relationship with your rich neighbour, but when your mortgage gets out of hand, go and ask them for money, or do you? And what are your comments about "It is Liverpool after all" supposed to mean? Knowing lots of scousers as I do, and as I'm sure many other people will know, scousers are the kindest, most giving helpful people you could hope to meet (if you're unintelligent, this is the bit where you make comments about hubcaps).

When it comes down to it, this is not their problem, and therefore not their responsibility. End of.

samuel gosney, reading, berkshire

To call Liverpool stingy is unfair. After all for the past few years Liverpool have held friendlies at Wrexham, and given them all the funds from the day and th reserve team played at Wrexhams ground too.
If Luton are losing 400k a day, Liverpool giving them 200k will not save them, it must be down to the bad management of the club?

John Harvey, DURHAM, England

If Liverpool help out Luton then they would have to help everyone else out in League 1 otherwise it wouldn't be fair on Luton's competitors in League 1. The teams that have been prudent and well managed in the past should benefit and the profligate should go to the wall, otherwise what is to stop all lower league teams rushing out to sign players they can't afford and then pleading poverty when it all goes wrong?

Ian, Thornbury, Glos

Any football club that goes into administration is guilty of financial mis-management and the only people who are responsible (and should be held accountable) are the people running the club at the time. It is not the Big Four or any other Premiership club for that matter. Was it Livepools fault that Leeds went bust? No, it was the idiots who ran the club. The same rules apply to all clubs, big and small. If you spend more than you earn you will go skint. Simple.

Marc Robert Sinfield, Hoddesdon,

I think Luton have a cheek asking in the first place.

James, London, UK

Has nobody been following the news? Liverpool have no money for new players or a new stadium. How is it selfish of them to want to be paid for playing? If Luton want more money, it's simple. Win the game!

jim, brussels, belgium

One day Liverpool might choose to remember how the rest of football supported them in their multiple tragedies. Until that day arrives, if ever, expect them to be mean minded and indifferent to the plight of fellow football clubs.

Such gestures as by Chelsea and manchester United, are usually inspired by the attitudes of their manager's. Benitez is no Ferguson or Mourinho, that's for sure.

Phil Thompson gave £10K to help Rotherham, maybe Liverpool's multi-millionaire players will donate their match fee instead? Nah, never in a million years, this is Liverpool we are talking about after all.

Nigel Wroe, Doncaster, Yorkshire

as a qpr fan i feel sympathy for Luto especially because they have our legend Paul Furlong in ther team. However, football is no charity so you have to earn your income by playing decend football. QPR had some rough years but the fans kept on coming and finally we see light at the end of the tunnel because some rich guys see a business opportunity. the 10 points deduction is a joke but don't humiliate yourselves by begging for money.

jim, London,

Hello, this is the FA Cup and not the Charity Shield. Luton might as well setup 20 booths outside each EPL club and ask/beg for donation to stay up.

If you cannot keep up, you lose out. Just look at Leeds. At least they had the dignity to go down themselves and not ask for petty donations against EPL club.

Look this is football, every penny counts. The USA in Liverpool are paying 26 mil a year just on interest and being charitable in not in their sould. Besides 100k can pay for the hotels, petrol and food.

King Kong, PJ,

This is such a selfish act by Liverpool.
However it is not surprising because the big(I think that should be bully)clubs aren't interested in anyone else.They would be quite happy for all the other clubs to go bust.
At lest we know the money will go to their foreign mercenaries and not help save a part of English football.
Shame on Liverpool.

Trevor, Bushey,

I'm not a Liverpool fan, I support Everton. Read into that what you will. It could be argued that by meeting clubs like Luton in the FA Cup, LFC are already doing their bit to help smaller clubs. Let's face it, if they weren't in the FA Cup 3rd round they'd be plying a MUCH more lucrative Premiership or Champions league fixture somewhere else.

I too have been to Kenilworth Rd., in the 80s. What a shambles of a place. As my brother said at the time, it looked like four different 'architects' had had a plan at various stages and each, successively, given it up as a bad job. I remember paying £5 to stand on an open terrace and £1 for a programme - this in the days when it cost me £4 to stand under cover at Goodison Park!

I hope Luton survive, and I hope the players (and everyone else) get their wages, but to expect Liverpool to travel there to play entirely at their own expense is unreasonable.

Chris Jones, Wakefield,

As a Liverpool fan who had to blag my way into Kenilworth Road when they banned away fans, and had to endure their looney right wing chairman's diatribes, I have no sympathy for them. Their plastic pitch and failure to fulfil a cup game against Liverpool make them a pariah club. Relegation is too good for them.

S. wainwriht, Liverpool,