By Paul Doyle
Waterford United this afternoon vowed to appeal the "unbelievable decision" of the eircom League Protests Committee to dock the club three points for fielding an unregistered player in a match against Dublin City on March 4th.
And, in an unusual twist, Dublin City have also branded the decision "disgraceful" and said they too intend launching an appeal.
The controversy relates to the participation of 18 year-old Noel Hunt in Waterford's crucial 2-1 victory over fellow promotion chasers Dublin City. Hunt had been signed on loan from Shamrock Rovers in December, but went back to Rovers to play in the League Cup game against Longford Town on January 21st, before returning to Waterford.
League rules stipulate Hunt should have had to wait before returning to play for Waterford, but Waterford Chairman Ger O'Brien received special clearance form league commissioner Roy Dooney to use him immediately.
However, a clause in the loan deal under which Hunt returned from Rovers said that Waterford had to renew the player's registration every month, and the Protest Committee determined that the club had failed to do this before the match versus Dublin City. It was on this basis that it imposed the points deduction.
"It's an unbelievable decision," said O'Brien, "particularly in light of recent events at St. Pats, where a club played a player for whom the league didn't even have a registration paper and they escape with a fine. Then we are deducted points when we did our best to go about our business properly!"
"The league really is in turmoil," he added, "I just don't know how they arrive at their decisions."
"We will certainly appeal this decision, we are currently examining the best avenue for that."
Ronan Seery, Chairman of Dublin City, said "we never wanted Waterford to be victimised. What we wanted was for the match to be replayed so that, in the spirit of football, the matter is sorted out on the pitch. We're filing our appeal today and hope for it to be heard tomorrow."