Dublin's Paul Curran is to be charged by the GAA's Games Administration Committee in connection with the incident in which Offaly centre back Finbar Cullen lost three teeth in a NFL match at Parnell Park earlier this month.

The decision was reached by the GAC on Thursday night after a stormy meeting which saw Dublin's delegation walk out in protest at what they believed to be procedural irregularities in the processing of the case.

There were signs yesterday that whatever had happened in relation to the Cullen incident was causing pause for thought. Despite the morning release of the news that the Carlow-Mayo NFL match scheduled for tomorrow was not to be played, it took until the late afternoon for any word on the Offaly-Dublin match to be issued.

At around 4.30 in the afternoon, a terse statement was released: "The findings of an investigation by the GAC have established that Paul Curran has a case to answer and he is being charged by the GAC. He may respond in writing, or may seek a personal hearing."

Dublin's complaint is based on Rules 152 and 153 which govern investigations. County officials believe that the decision to summon Curran to a hearing, taken when the investigation was launched on November 5th, in fact prejudged his involvement at a stage before the match referee's report had been received. It is also claimed that notice of Thursday's hearing contained no reference to either Rule 152 or 153.

The Dublin delegation refused to name Curran in the context of the incident, a refusal inspired in part by their experiences at the Leinster Council last March when after co-operating with the provincial body in respect of disturbances at the under-21 match - coincidentally, also against Offaly - Dublin felt that the book was thrown at their players and representatives.

Curran will face the charge at the next meeting of the GAC, believed to be December 15th.

At the moment, the matter is a mess. If Curran was responsible for the injuries to Cullen, by now he should have owned up to the offence and regardless of procedural anomalies, the Dublin executive shouldn't be complicating the GAC's task by condoning the prevarication.

If, on the other hand, the player is not responsible, the GAC investigation should have indicated as much and the committee should not be prolonging the matter any further. Either way, the drawn-out melodrama is unnecessary and vexatious.

In relation to the Mayo-Carlow NFL fixture, the GAC kicked to touch in a most extraordinary manner. Apparently there was a fear that by granting a postponement, Croke Park would be seen to bow to pressure from players after the Carlow panel unanimously withdrew from the match following the resignation of team manager Bobby Miller and the disbandment of the county's supporters' club - despite the fact that the postponement had been requested by the county board.

The text of yesterday's first terse statement stated: "At their meeting of the 27 Novemeber 1997, the GAC of the GAA reserved a decision on Carlow's application for a postponement . . . The GAC stated that they will review the fixture at a later date and that the views of Mayo will be considered. They added that they acknowledged that Sunday's game will not take place."

This gave rise to the extraordinary situation that the body with the power to postpone the match refused to do so - raising theoretical doubts as to whether the match was actually called off or not - but added that the fixture would not take place. The required certainty came from Carlow who had already informed Mayo that they would be unable to fulfil the fixture.

According to Mayo's PRO, Aiden Brennan, the county is easy about the fate of the fixture and happy to abide by any GAC decision.

"We had no input into it and weren't asked for a postponement, but if the decision is to play it again, we're happy to do so, although it won't be this side of Christmas as the players are going away next week. We don't mind not playing as our lads are tired and will have a final session on Saturday (today)."

Finally, Kildare's request for a postponement of next week's NFL match against Down was granted because county champions Clane are contesting the Leinster final that same afternoon. The League fixture will now be played on December 14th.