League table may need to be explained

On Soccer: In most countries the people who put together league tables for the newspapers need only letters and numbers to complete their weekly chore. As often as not here in Ireland, it seems, the asterisk is central to the process.

As it happens they have been rather neglected so far this season but that may all be about to end for after what should be a hectic day of meetings in Merrion Square tomorrow tables published for the Premier Division of the Eircom League may well be littered with the things.

The desire of Shelbourne to see the points earned against the now-defunct Dublin City restored is the main reason.

It has the potential to result in a table that requires quite a lengthy explanatory footnote while Derry City's apparent error in playing Seán Hargan while he was supposed to be suspended recently may also require a line or two.

We should, of course, be getting used to this sort of thing and as usual the league has to take some responsibility for the mess it finds itself in.

Pointedly, it pretty much beggars belief that nobody anticipated a club would hit the rocks so violently that it would be in no position to comply with the organisation's rather quaint rule 6.4, which states clubs must give two months' notice of intention to resign and may do so only when the season has ended.

The words reflect noble intentions, to be sure, but hardly the reality of a league where at least a couple of clubs flirt with financial ruin each year and even the main administrator at the biggest and most successful outfit is far from a stranger to throwing the kettle on the hob when the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland drops around to sort out the issue of unpaid wages.

Still, those in charge of the league sought to retrospectively sort out the mess left by the untimely demise of Dublin City as best they could. Precedents are few but what few exist all appear to suggest that the club's results should be written out of the record books. And that's what was recommended to a meeting of the league's Board of Control last month.

It was subsequently argued that the board was the wrong committee to deal with the matter and that members associated with clubs standing to benefit from such a decision should have abstained on the matter. It is worth noting, however, that everybody present chose to follow the advice put before them and that those who favoured the action adopted included neutrals and an official of one club (Cork City) that actually lost ground in the title race as a result of the decision.

In any case, the suggestion by an appeals committee that the club's resignation should have been refused seems just a little unrealistic, while a compelling case has yet to be made for allowing a situation whereby the championship is decided in part on the basis of results achieved against a team no longer in existence.

Derry City effectively stand to benefit by three points in respect of their pursuit of Shelbourne if the current position is upheld at tomorrow's Management Committee - which, coincidentally, is the number of points they are most likely to be docked for their actions in the highly contentious Hargan affair.

The problem here centres on whether the club received notification of Hargan's suspension for accumulated bookings ahead of the Bohemians game and whether they subsequently played him against Waterford United after having been made aware, even informally, that he was the subject of a suspension.

Judging by the rules, as amended a couple of years ago, the league looks to be on fairly solid ground here. Notification must be sent either by fax or email, and the latter was apparently used in this instance because the club's fax machine was out of action.

The league can demonstrate that the message was sent and while the club insists it was not received, actually proving it appears to be their only hope of avoiding a penalty, and it is questionable whether that is possible.

City are already threatening legal action over the matter, and the frustration of Derry City manager Stephen Kenny and his players is entirely understandable.

The suspicion is, however, that whatever happens in relation to Dublin City, when the league table is next run on Saturday morning, Derry's name will indeed give the newspapers a reason to roll out the asterisk.