Dundee United docked 25 points
Dundee United have been hit with a 25-point penalty by the Scottish Football League after they entered into administration for the second time in seven years.
The First Division club has also been slapped with a transfer embargo, meaning that they cannot sign any new players until they emerge from administration.
The decision means that the Dens Park outfit has dropped to the bottom of the table with minus 11 points, 20 behind second last-placed Morton, with 25 games to play.
That has left the club with a huge task ahead of them if they are to preserve their First Division status. The decision is also likely to make them less attractive to investors, though they have the right to appeal the ruling.
Dundee’s administrator Bryan Jackson told the BBC he was shocked that the points penalty was so severe.
"Everyone at the club is in absolute, total shock. They cannot understand the severity of the sanctions. It's made a difficult job even more difficult.
"We're not going to give up. We'll do everything we can, but this really limits the options for us. If you were an external investor, unless you were connected with the club, why would you have any interest in a club that has nothing to play for this year
and is going to be relegated?
"I was expecting 15 points as a sanction at the very worst. I was hoping for 10. I understand the SFL have to be seen to act, but I thought if it was going to be anything worse than 10, it would be an amount that would give us something to play for. That way
we could maintain the same standards we have kept up in the games since we've been in administration. I think it's self-defeating.
“How do I maintain the integrity of fielding a team and keeping a support out there under these circumstances?"
The SFL said in a statement that they would reconsider Dundee’s case and perhaps invoke additional sanctions if they are still in administration on 31 March.
The penalty comes just over two weeks after the club was forced to sack 13 players and other staff members in their battle to stay afloat.
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