Brian Mooney will miss both of UCD's InterToto Cup games with Bulgarian side FC Velbazhd after UEFA dismissed an appeal against a two-match ban.
Mooney, sent-off in a UEFA Cup game while playing for Bohemians in 1996, believed he had served his three-match ban. But because Bohemians failed to register him as a player with UEFA for their next UEFA Cup games, against Hungarian side Ferencvaros the following season, the European body ruled that two matches of the ban were still valid.
It was scarcely the news UCD manager Martin Moran needed yesterday. Three of his other more experienced players - Peter Hanrahan, captain Aidan Lynch and Tony McDonnell - are injured and will miss the club's first European match for 16 years.
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