Supporters will need a calculator to work out what is going on in Coca-Cola League Two next season after Luton Town lost their appeal against a ten-point deduction by the FA for financial irregularities, involving payments to agents, in London yesterday.

The decision means that Luton, who were also docked 20 points by the Football League on Thursday for failing to comply with its insolvency policy, will start the season on minus 30 points. Bournemouth and Rotherham United are also likely to be punished by a deduction of at least 15 points by the League for failing to exit administration with a Company Voluntary Agreement.

The authorities argue that deducting points sets an example and maintains corporate governance standards, but the bottom division is in danger of descending into farce if any more clubs go into administration.

The FA expressed sympathy with Luton's plight yesterday, but a three-man panel insisted that the punishment of a ten-point deduction and a £50,000 fine fitted the crime of failing to register payments to agents with the governing body.

Luton Town Football Club 2020 Ltd (LTFC 2020), the consortium that is trying to take the club out of administration, maintained that it was business as usual despite the latest setback, but there is a danger that Luton could become the first team to finish a season on minus points, to judge from the way that Mick Harford's patched-up team of tyros and trialists lost 4-1 to Hitchin Town, of the British Gas Business League premier division, on Monday night.

Harford cannot sign players because Luton are in administration, but at least the manager with the hardest job in English football can count on Bournemouth and Rotherham having points deducted next season. Two teams will be relegated from League Two and it looks as if it will be a fight between those three clubs.

Luton have won 22 points on the pitch and had 40 deducted in the past eight months and they may have to win 73 points next season if they want to avoid losing their status. Last season Mansfield Town were relegated to the Blue Square Premier after finishing 23rd in League Two with 42 points. “It's going to be a hell of challenge, but I'm up for it,” Harford said. “Staying up after having 30 points deducted would be one of the greatest achievements ever.”

Long-suffering Luton fans expected the FA to offer them a helping hand yesterday by upholding their club's appeal against last month's punishments for paying agents through the club's holding company, but the FA Appeal Board, chaired by Nicholas Stewart, QC, decided that the punishments for 15 charges of misconduct should stand. Rules are rules, even though the crimes were committed by people who are no longer at Kenilworth Road.

“The deduction of ten points was a heavy sanction, as it was intended to be,” the panel said. “But it was not excessive as a reflection of the seriousness of the breaches and the need to deter such conduct within clubs.”

The panel heard four hours of evidence at a hotel near Soho Square before reaching its decision. “We are at the lowest point in our history but we will get through this,” Gary Sweet, the managing director of LTFC 2020, said. “We are paying for the sins ... of previous directors.”

Now that the legal battles have been lost, the fate of the club is in the hands of Harford and his players. Without meaningful contracts and on meagre wages, they are working in circumstances that are a far cry from the buzz and bling of the Barclays Premier League. The next time you hear someone complain that all footballers are spoilt and overpaid, spare a thought for the men who wear the white shirts of Luton.