St Patrick's Athletic Football Club may retain nine Eircom League points which were restored to it by an arbitrator, the High Court decided yesterday. The points had been deducted from the club, based in Inchicore, Dublin, for fielding an alleged unregistered player in three league matches.
Shelbourne Football Club, who play in Tolka Park, Dublin, had challenged the arbitrator's decision to restore the points in proceedings against the Football Association of Ireland. It had sought an injunction to restrain the FAI giving effect to the ruling, which was made on January 7th last.
In his lengthy judgment yesterday, Mr Justice O'Sullivan said the arbitrator had issued and reissued an invitation to Shelbourne to attend the arbitration and make submissions but the club did not attend and instead reverted to discussion and disagreement about the appeals procedure.
The judge said there was no question of a fundamental error on the face of the arbitrator's award. In those circumstances, he would refuse to interfere with it. He added there was some degree of confusion relating to the interconnection between the two sets of rules of the FAI and the Eircom League.
Immediately after yesterday's judgment, lawyers for Shelbourne said they would have to give consideration to whether or not they would appeal to the Supreme Court.