The inevitable curse may have struck Saturday's drab live but largely lifeless match between Derry City and Bohemians, but you can be guaranteed that when the National League attempts to tackle the thorny issue of its own size, there will never be a dull moment.

Since its foundation in 1921 the size of the league has been changed 17 times and there were doubtless those who thought in 1985 that the expansion to 22 teams back was suicidal. Certainly, though, over the past few seasons the majority of larger clubs have made their desire for a reduction to 18 clubs very well known indeed.

A couple of years ago, at the League's AGM a motion was put forward to reduce the number in the top flight, but not only was it defeated but a majority of clubs actually favoured increasing the Premier Division to 16 sides with the First Division retaining its current number. League officials suddenly found themselves on the look out for prospective members, with any club that possessed a wall around their pitch and a working set of traffic cones having an automatic bye through to the interview stage.

More recently a nine-strong National League sub-committee has been established to consider this, and just about every other, issue. It meets again tonight and recommendations are expected before the end of the year. Whether those recommendations will have the slightest impact, however, remains to be seen.

The fact that three independent members were appointed along with three from each division is a recognition of the way the battle lines are drawn. Few within the game believe that any genuine consensus can be achieved.

Then came last week's statement by FAI general secretary Bernard O'Byrne that if no changes can be agreed in the foreseeable future, then they may have to be imposed by the association. "The market here," O'Byrne made it clear, "is not big enough", and, "the association may have to send out a directive imposing a solution".

O'Byrne's appearance at a meeting of National League United was welcome, although there is just a touch of irony about him choosing the occasion to make such a divisive statement. Nevertheless there was delight from Shelbourne Secretary Ollie Byrne, who welcomed the statement, and said that he favoured a 10-club league (a number last seen in 1963) with, he suggested, a temporary abolition of relegation to encourage substantial investment in the country's leading clubs.

Under the current rules of the league he has virtually no chance of securing such a structure because not only would the dozen clubs who would see themselves as being likely to be excluded come out against it, a couple of the bigger sides for whom things are nor going so well just now might just get cold feet if it came to a vote in the near future.

Whether there is any point, however, in the League's sub-committee continuing to ponder the future, when the association appears to be preparing to take a strong line in favour of one particular course of action, is questionable.

One member of the committee, Derek Wilkinson, insists that he and his fellow members will discard their club hats and propose what is best for the league. He believes that the clubs, when they come to vote on the proposals, will take that into account. "My feeling is," he says, "that what we come back with will be recommended."

The league's president, Michael Hyland, probably will endorse whatever is put forward, but the record of club representatives heeding the advice of their national leaders does not inspire too much confidence of a bloodless resolution.

Byrne, after all, last week suggested that if a voluntary reduction was not forthcoming, then an English/Scottish style breakaway might be the answer, while earlier in the season, Longford Town manager Michael O'Connor, then concerned that his own club might be allowed to go to the wall, said that: "if the people in Dublin are allowed to let senior football disappear from places like Longford, then we might as well say to them, `fine let Wimbledon come over and play here then'."

Then there is the case of St Francis. They were invited to join the league just a year ago, after St James's Gate had been led out into the woods by league officials, never to be seen again. "Obviously we felt it was the right thing to do for us," says St Francis's Pete Mahon. "But I'd be very disappointed to think that when it suits them we'll just be dumped back out again."

He would, he adds "love to be a fly on the wall" at the meeting that sorts it all out.