National League Premier DivisionWith the threat of legal action apparently looming regardless of which team ends up winning this year's Eircom National League Premier Division title, the appeal board considering whether Shelbourne should be handed three points for the game they lost to Bohemians when their opponents fielded a suspended player will reconvene next Wednesday. It is expected the three-man committee's eagerly anticipated decision will be announced then.
Shelbourne are seeking either the points from the game or to have the match replayed as a result of Jason McGuinness's participation when he should have been serving a suspension.
The club's officials have repeatedly argued it is not enough for Bohemians to have the three points they got for winning the game 2-1 deducted, as has already happened.
In a letter sent recently to Uefa in relation to the matter, Shelbourne clearly indicated they would settle for a replay, although chief executive Ollie Byrne is believed to have cited - when he addressed the appeal board earlier this month - a number of leagues and other organisations under whose rules such circumstances would entail a 3-0 win being automatically granted to the team in Shelbourne's position.
Commenting on the situation after Tuesday's defeat of Shelbourne at the Brandywell, however, Derry City manager Stephen Kenny said, "If they were granted a replay then it would be the biggest scandal that's been in Irish football in years.
"It would be a scandal in European football terms to say that a team loses, gets a replay and then gets three points.
"Common sense should prevail," he added, "and it should be won on the pitch over the season. It should be up to the best team now to win it. We've still got five games and we've got it all to do but hopefully we can do it."
That a defeat inflicted with the aid of a player who shouldn't have been on the field should be allowed to stand is a rather difficult proposition to back wholeheartedly, but Derry's understandable fear is that Bohemians, without their then manager, Gareth Farrelly, a couple of their better players and any great motivation beyond depriving their rivals of the title, would make for much softer opponents in the event the game were ordered to be replayed.
As it is, the two teams are scheduled to meet on the last day of the season and few up at the Brandywell would feel comfortable entrusting their fate to Bohemians to any greater extent than that.
The problem from the league's point of view is that, not for the first time, their rulebook does not appear to provide a satisfactorily clear basis for a resolution of the problem.
In part because of this, there is a growing belief that if the title is not decided by more than the number of points in dispute because of the Seán Hargan affair (played for Derry when he should have been suspended but no points deducted), the McGuinness affair and the decision to expunge the results of Dublin City from the records, then one or other club will seek damages from the league to compensate them for the losses incurred as a result of not winning the title and qualifying for the Champions League.
On at least one previous occasion when substantial expenses were incurred in a dispute centring on administrative problems within the league, the FAI ended up having to foot the bill.
The desire to avoid a repeat of the situation has been cited by the association's chief executive, John Delaney, as one of his reasons for pursuing the merger of the two organisations.
The pity of it all is that Tuesday's win by Derry City has left the title race wonderfully well balanced, with City now just three points behind their rivals with one game more to play but a slightly inferior goal difference.
"It's still there for both teams," insists Kenny, "but we were 10 points behind last week as opposed to three now with a match in hand, so we can see daylight and we'll just have to keep it going for the last few weeks."
After that, it seems, the lawyers may get to move in.
Remaining Fixtures
Shelbourne
3/11: Drogheda (H) 7.30 (Live on RTÉ Two)
7/11: Sligo Rovers (A) 7.45
10/11: Cork City (A) 7.30 (Live on RTÉ Two)
17/11: Bohemians (H) 7.45*
Derry City
3/11: Bray Wanderers (H) 7.45
7/11: Drogheda United (A) 7.45
10/11: St Patrick's Athletic (A) 7.45
13/11: Waterford United (A) 7.45
17/11: Cork City (H) 7.45*
* RTÉ 2 will decide closer to the date which of the two games it will broadcast live.
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