Luton Town join exclusive club in League One for unwanted reason, promotion is a must

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Luton Town began their League One campaign with a win over Wimbledon in the EFL opener, securing a 1-0 victory at home.

It was not a game that will ever be considered a classic for the EFL, but Luton Town won’t care, as they secured the win.

The club know that promotion is the ultimate goal this campaign but know it won’t be easy in a competitive league, with Huddersfield Town considered favourites.

While Blackpool have been viewed as outsiders for the League One title, Luton may be happy to slip somewhat under the radar.

Luton joined an unwanted club ahead of this League One season, meaning promotion is a must.

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Luton are the third club to have Premier League parachute payments in League One

Luton Town had a disappointing campaign last season, as they were relegated to the third tier from the Championship, with the Hatters competing in the Premier League only two years ago.

The club are now entitled to parachute payments from the Premier League following their relegation to help them after they had dropped down from the top flight.

Luton are only the third club to have had the ignominy of competing in League One with Premier League parachute payments after a double relegation from the top flight.

Wolves were the first club to have this unwanted tag when they dropped down to League One for the 2013/14 season.

A poor period under Mick McCarthy and then Terry Connor in the Premier League saw them relegated, and then Stale Solbakken and Dean Saunders failed to keep them in the Championship.

Meanwhile, Sunderland suffered the same fate in 2018, with the heartbreaking fall to League One being documented on the Netflix series ‘Sunderland Til I Die’.

Both Sunderland and Wolves are now both back in the Premier League, a fate that Luton Town will hope they can emulate.

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Swindon Town were the first club to suffer consecutive relegations from the Premier League

While football did not begin in 1992 with the creation of the Premier League, there has been a distinct change in the English football landscape since then.

Swindon Town were the first club to suffer consecutive relegations from the Premier League to League One; however, when they did this, there were no parachute payments.

This may go a bit of the way to help explain why Swindon are now competing in League Two and have not come close to competing in the Premier League since.

Swindon did win the League One title following their double relegation, as did Wolves; this is something Luton Town will need to do to ensure they don’t get stuck in the division like Sunderland.