Southampton were Thursday condemned to relegation from the Championship after the English Football League imposed a 10-point penalty in reaction to the club’s parent company going into administration.
The penalty will apply this season if Southampton avoid relegation or at the start of next season if the club fails to beat the drop.
Southampton are currently second from bottom of the second tier of English football with two matches left to play this season.
If they can manage to scramble out of the drop zone, they will inevitably be relegated once the points penalty is applied, but that option would be preferable to starting next season with a ten points deficit.
The league’s ruling came after accountants who were asked to examine Southampton’s finances judged that the parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings, was inextricably linked to the club and could not be regarded as a separate entity, as the club had maintained.
Under league rules designed to ensure responsible financial management, any club that goes into administration faces an automatic ten-point penalty.
The sanction applies in the same season up until the fourth Thursday in March. After that cut-off point it is applied to relegated clubs the following season under a provision designed to stop clubs that know they are going down from taking their punishment at a time when it will make no material difference to them.
Southampton Leisure Holdings went into administration earlier this month with its financial plight largely due to the costs incurred in building a new 30,000-seat stadium, St Mary’s, which have proved unmanageable in the aftermath of the club’s 2005 relegation from the Premier League.
