We take a look at the administration process and pick out the key points that all Crystal Palace fans should know.

TEN POINT DEDUCTION

As soon as an administration order is made and communicated to the Football League, the club is immediately subjected to a sporting sanction of 10 points. This is section 12.3 of the Football League regulations, which every club votes on and backs. The penalty is imposed because before people were not paying creditors and getting into massive debts with the likes of the HMRC and then having those debts wiped out by going into administration. They would not get a points penalty and would have an unfair advantage over clubs who are up to date with their creditors.

MEMBERSHIP SUSPENSION

As soon as the club goes into administration it has its Football League membership suspended. This gives the Football League something to hold over the clubs to make sure they follow the rules to protect the whole league and the integrity of the competition. No club should gain advantage over others by not paying its creditors in full and on time.

PAYING FOOTBALL CREDITORS

Football creditors have to be paid in full. The Football League will hold all finances supposed to be going to the club centrally and will then distribute those to the club's football creditors, people within football they owe money to. For example, If Tottenham still owed money to Palace for John Bostock and they went out of business Palace would still get their money. Until everything is sorted the club will be under a transfer embargo, because if they cannot pay their existing liabilites they should not take on any more liabilities. They can though appply for emergency loans depending on the numbers in the squad.

EXITING ADMINISTRATION

The club must agree a Complusory Voluntary Agreement with all its creditors to compensate them for the money they are owed. This will be something like 50 pence in the pound, unless you are a football creditor who must be paid 100 pence in the pound. The CVA is successful when 75 per cent or more of creditors back the proposal but it will not get passed if those who cannot agree the CVA include a minimum 50 per cent of unconnected creditors, including directors and shareholders. If there is a successful CVA and the new owners meet Football League rules and pass the fit and proper persons test then the club will get their membership back. If though the club fails to agree a CVA, they might be able to apply to exit administration under exceptional circumstances. If the board of the league agree, it allows the club to reform as an entirely new company and keep the position of the old club. But if they haven't paid their creditors properly or agreed a CVA then that breaks Football League rules which means an extra points penalty.