SOCCER:The return of Shamrock Rovers and Galway United to the top flight of Irish football was confirmed yesterday at Citywest where the FAI delivered the findings of the Independent Assessment Group (IAG) they established to oversee the reorganisation of the Eircom League's membership to club representatives from around the country.

Though not entirely surprising, United's promotion was the main talking point of the afternoon, not least amongst the representatives of Waterford United and Dundalk, both of whom were told they had missed out on a place in the top flight of an entity to be known as the "Eircom League of Ireland".

There were predictable reactions from the parties concerned with the successful clubs expressing delight with the results delivered by the process while those who were disappointed reacted angrily.

"We've very pleased with the faith shown in us by the IAG and the FAI and we don't intend to disappoint them," said Nial O'Reilly, the chairman of Galway's management committee. "We've worked very hard to ensure we would get a place in the premier division," he added, "now that we're there we intend to make sure we stay there."

Dundalk manager John Gill, however, described the decision to exclude his club from the new premier division as "stomach churning". He said he was appalled by the implication that playing 36 league games and two play-off matches, "counts for nothing".

"I feel the club's players have been let down and the supporters have been let down," he said. "I thought fair play was still part of the game but obviously it's not."

The decisions delivered yesterday were based on a system that ranked clubs on the basis of their achievements both on and off the pitch. A total of 1,000 points were available with half being awarded on the basis of the club's performance in the league and two cup competitions over the last five seasons and half awarded at the discretion of the four-man IAG which assessed clubs in terms of structures, facilities and business plans.

This committee was composed of former FAI honorary secretary Des Casey, former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald, former Irish Sports Council chairman Pat O'Neill and Charlton Athletic director Richard Collins.

It fell to Casey, who has lifelong links with Dundalk and FAI chief executive John Delaney, who has had a somewhat similar relationship with Waterford United, to deliver the committee's findings, the significance of which was not lost on the likes of UCD's Brendan Dillon.

"You would certainly have to respect the integrity of the process," said the former league chairman who was centrally involved with his own club's presentation to the IAG.

"It involved a far more in-depth examination of the club than the licensing scheme has and it says something that it has resulted in a situation where the clubs so closely associated with two such influential figures have turned out to be the biggest losers."

Casey expressed sympathy for Dundalk's plight but insisted their case for a place in the top flight "simply wasn't good enough to get them over the line".

Referring to the process as a whole, he continued, "we made it clear from the outset we intended to deal with each and every one of the clubs in a equitable and transparent manner. In terms of the marks awarded for off-the-field criteria we scored them individually and then came together to collate the various marks and produce a final result.

"It's quite amazing how close those individual scores were to the aggregate ones."

Needless to say, there will be a good deal of interest in how some of the scores were arrived at, particularly amongst those who have lost out. Galway's off-the-field score of 389 effectively won them promotion over Dundalk who managed 348 out of the 500 available points.

UCD scored 374 in this department thereby ensuring their own top flight survival but two of the country's wealthiest clubs - Shelbourne and Drogheda United, obtained just 278 and 300 points respectively.

Casey and Delaney refused repeated requests at après conference yesterday to elaborate on how the various scores had been arrived at, insisting the detail would be communicated to the individual clubs who could then to decide whether they wished to make the explanation public.

"It's important to remember here that all the clubs signed up to this process," said Delaney. "The important thing now is to get on with it. The decisions have been made and the clubs have until the 17th of January to sign their participation agreements.

To date only eight clubs are assured of places in the new first division but Delaney expressed confidence that issues of Limerick's club licence and the vacancy created by Dublin City's collapse earlier in the year would both be successfully addressed.

Limerick have already lodged their appeal in the relation to the licensing issue while Delaney confirmed two clubs were interested in joining the league, one already confirmed as Wexford Town, under developer Mick Wallace.