LEEDS, England (AP) Leeds will start the League One season with a 15-point deduction after its appeal against the penalty was rejected by the Football League yesterday.

The chairmen of the League's other 71 clubs voted to uphold the sanction imposed on Leeds for failing to meet its strict rules on insolvency.

Leeds went into administration at the end of last season, incurring a 10-point penalty that sealed relegation from the Championship which had looked likely anyway.

Leeds owner Ken Bates bought the cash-strapped club out of administration, but it failed to agree on an official arrangement to pay off an acceptable amount of its debts to creditors.

The deal meant that the club had not come out of administration via a Company Voluntary Agreement which the League demands leading to the 15-point penalty for breach of League policy.

Bates wrote to all Football League chairmen, arguing that the punishment was a "breach of natural justice," but a vast majority still voted to uphold it.

Leeds reached the 2001 Champions League semi-finals, but were relegated from the Premier League in 2004. This season will its first in the third tier of English soccer.