The FAI board of management will meet on Friday to rule on Kilkenny City's refusal to travel to Ballybofey to fulfil last evening's FAI Cup quarter-final replay against Finn Harps.
Acting on their threat to boycott the fixture after, first, Finn Harps, and later the FAI had failed to accede to their request for a 24hour postponement, the Kilkenny players and management stayed at home while the Donegal team went through the formalities of claiming a walk over.
Over 200 curious spectators turned up at Finn Park last night for the game that never was.
Harps officials remained tight-lipped about the affair, stressing that the matter is out of their hands.
There is no modern precedent in the competition of a club refusing to fulfil a fixture, but Alfie Hale, the Kilkenny manager, was unrepentant about the decision which has spawned a new crisis for the FAI.
"We made our position clear well in advance that we simply couldn't go through with a game of this importance with only 12 fit players to choose from," he said. "To do so would have brought the competition and Irish football in general into disrepute and we were not prepared to be a party to that. The FAI and Finn Harps may be right according to the letter of the law, but I believe they are in breach of the true spirit of football."
Harps, for their part, deny they agreed to a 24-hour postponement immediately after last Saturday's 2-2 draw in the original game at Buckley Park. They contend that neither Charlie McGeever, the team manager, nor Derek Wilkinson, a respected officer of the club, was in a position to agree to that concession which, in any event, ultimately appears to have been rejected by club chairman Conor Boyce.
In taking their decision, they maintain that tonight's televised English FA Cup replay between Chelsea and Manchester United would have reduced a projected attendance of 2,000 by a quarter, with a consequent loss of £2,500 at the turnstiles.
Kilkenny argue that, with five players already definitely out, they needed an extra 24 hours to give two other casualties, Brendan Rea and Ritchie Hale, a realistic chance to recover from injuries received in the first game.
Perhaps the more valid reason for their request was that a postponement would have enabled them to include their gifted forward, Michael Reddy, who was in the Republic of Ireland squad for last evening's European championship under-18 game against Northern Ireland at the Oval.
At this point in their short history the honour of providing a player for the national team hasn't often been visited on Kilkenny City, and Hale, with the full support of the club committee, correctly insisted that Reddy be given the chance of representing his country.
As happened some years ago, when Cork City refused to fulfil a Premier Division game against Bohemians at Cobh, against a background of dire threats, the near certainty is that the game will be rescheduled to establish Galway United's opponents in the semi-final.
By that stage, however, a significant amount of damage will have been inflicted on the image of the competition and, in common with the clubs involved, the FAI will stand accused of being responsible in part.
There is a perception of a new sense of arrogance within sections of the association, which has on occasion been aggravated by some doubtful decision-making.
It is right that they should stand up against expedient postponements and strive within reason to protect the integrity of their flagship competition. Occasionally, however, the application of rules has to be tempered by common sense to avoid the kind of situation in which they now find themselves.
