The arbitration hearing on the wrongly deducted 9 points is due on Monday 7th of January, but Ollie Byrne of northside minnows Shelbourne has already tried to disrupt due process with his usual underhand tactics.
From the Independent:
SHELBOURNE chief executive Ollie Byrne has offered an olive branch to St Patrick's Athletic and a novel way out of the nine-point deduction they suffered for playing an unregistered player in three League games at the start of the season.
Senior Counsel Liam Reidy will hold an arbitration hearing on Monday into St Pat's appeal against the decision of the FAI appeals board to deduct them nine points.
The legal teams of several Premier Division clubs are keeping a watching brief and are ready to visit the High Court if they are unhappy with the arbitrator's decision.
But last night Byrne opened the door to a possible solution when he suggested the dispute be resolved on the football pitch by St Pat's playing the three games involved again, including the one against his own club.
St Pat's fielded the unregistered Paul Marney in their wins over Galway United and Derry City and the draw against Shelbourne at the start of the season before it was discovered that he shouldn't have played.
"Pat Dolan keeps telling us that points should be won on the football field and I agree with that, so let's play the three matches again," said Byrne.
"Obviously it would be a gamble for Shelbourne as we have already taken a point off St Pat's but I think it's the only way that anybody can be happy in this situation and it would ensure that football is the winner."
Byrne stressed that his solution to the nine point dispute was his own personal one but felt confident his club would back him.
The Shelbourne official also claimed that the arbitration procedures had not been followed in accordance with the rules and that he had been advised a legal challenge on that point would succeed.
Dolan, who is managing director and director of football at St Pat's, declined to comment on Byrne's suggestion.
Byrne's offer of an olive branch to St Pat's comes in the aftermath of an attack on the Tolka Park club by Dolan in his tabloid column on New Year's Day in which he criticised Shelbourne for appealing the Eircom League's decision not to deduct points off St Pat's and claimed that the League had ruled his club were innocent of any wrong-doing.
Byrne hit back, claiming that Dolan was merely trying to up the ante ahead of Monday's arbitration hearing.
"While I have great sympathy for the fans and players of St Patrick's in their present dilemma, there is nobody at fault in this only the administrative side of St Patrick's Athletic.
"I believe the timing of the article was deliberate because of the arbitration hearing next Monday and our league game on January 18 against St Pat's.
"The League fined St Pat's IR£1,000 for a breach of a rule. Because the unregistered player played against Shelbourne we had a vested interest but our appeal was made to uphold the integrity of the rules," added Byrne.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the two Dublin rivals have also clashed over a points controversy at schoolboy level.
Shelbourne's U-13 team have just had ten deducted points restored on appeal after an initial protest from St Pat's schoolboy section over an alleged illegal approach to a player.
Gerry McDermott
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