League of Ireland:Shelbourne officials hope to resume their deliberations today on how to respond to the decision by the FAI's First Instance Committee (FIC) to relegate them to the First Division.

The club has until Monday to appeal the punishment but some of its management committee members have expressed reservations about pursuing the matter while making it clear that they view the conditions attached to even their First Division licence as unreasonable.

The club has been told that it must pay all monies owed to players and the Revenue Commissioners by March 5th and that it must then submit a full set of accounts for review by independent auditors to be nominated by the FIC after which its First Division status would be looked at again. Club officials, including interim chairman Gary Brown, believe that the condition creates unreasonable uncertainty regarding even the club's medium-term future at a time that it urgently needs to set about recruiting a manager and players for the coming season - the deadline for signing players is next Wednesday after which it could only bring in free agents.

Provisional arrangements made on this front have been thrown into doubt by the outcome of Monday's FIC meeting. Some within Tolka Park initially took some small consolation immediately after that decision was announced from the reports that Liam Moggan, the committee's chairman, had resigned. It appears, however, that, while he has declined to comment on his departure, it was in fact motivated by a belief that Shelbourne had been too leniently rather than too harshly treated.

Brown insists, even accepting the punishment is not exactly a straightforward affair. "How are we supposed to go out and sign people on that basis?" he asks. "Do we tell them that we want them to come to the club and we'll pay them so much but that we might be out of business in a month? It's hard not to think that what is being imposed on Shelbourne Football Club here is death by a thousand cuts.

Jason Byrne is expected to miss Cardiff City's televised Championship game against Preston North End after suffering a suspected broken toe in Tuesday night's 1-0 defeat by West Brom. The former Shelbourne striker limped out of what was only his second start for the Welsh club after 71 minutes.