NATIONAL LEAGUE: Eircom League commissioner Roy Dooney last night confirmed that he had known since "the end of September" that, in addition to the much publicised Paul Marney, "there might be a problem with the registration of another St Patrick's Athletic player".

The admission followed the revelation yesterday that Charles Mbabazi Livingstone, the club's Ugandan striker who is their leading scorer this season, was unregistered for the first five games of the league season.

The news appears to have reduced the title-race to little more than a shambles with neither Dooney nor officials from any of the other clubs contacted last night expressing the belief that St Patrick's would this time avoid the imposition of a three-point deduction for each of the games involved. The loss of the 15 points will have the effect of confirming Shelbourne as the new champions.

The latest twist in what was previously known as the "Paul Marney affair" started to emerge yesterday morning when Shelbourne Chief Executive Ollie Byrne arrived at Merrion Square and requested that he be allowed inspect the registrations of the St Patrick's players as is his right under the rules.

It subsequently came to light that Mbabazi's form had been received five weeks into the season, well after the problems with Marney's had come to light.

Dooney, who was due to meet with representatives of the Inchicore club to discuss their fixture pile-up in any case, informed manager Pat Dolan and club president Tim O'Flaherty of the situation later in the morning and requested they look into the matter.

Asked before last night's match against Derry City about the affair, O'Flaherty said: "We were advised yesterday that there was a problem. It was the first I heard about it. Charlie has been with us for the past two years and we are assuming that this is just the latest instalment of the so-called 'Paul Marney affair'. It has been instigated by the same person, but we are having a meeting after tonight's game and we will have out reply early tomorrow (today)."

Dooney's admission that he had known about the Mbabazi situation for nearly six months will infuriate Shelbourne.

Last night he denied having any contact with St Patrick's with regard to the issue and said that he did not know how the significance of the form's belated arrival had gone unnoticed. He said he acted for what he felt was "the good of the league".

"At the time that I realised that Mbabazi's name wasn't on a list of registered players that was sent to the club after the Paul Marney situation had come to light, they had been docked the nine points so I felt that they had been punished."

When the points were restored, he added, "the whole process had been gone through," and so he opted to let the matter lie.

"To clarify my position here," he remarked, "my thinking was that the rules of the league are chaotic, the registration system is chaotic and while we are trying to address those problems my guiding spirit in the application of the rules was to ensure that both fair play and common sense were used.

"There are," he went on to concede, "other forms that I am aware of that are not correctly filled in. It's not hugely widespread, but there would be other clubs who would probably be facing points deductions."

Most cases, he said, involved less prominent clubs, but some, he confirmed, are also in the Premier Division.

The way in which the Marney affair was handled is already the subject of an internal enquiry within the league and several senior figures associated with clubs not directly affected by yesterday's events last night expressed dismay and disbelief that such a similar situation could now come to light.

When the problem with Marney first emerged a league panel, that included Dooney and league president Michael Hyland, was set up and a majority decided to ignore the league's own rule book by imposing a fine, but not the mandatory three-point deduction for each of the three games the young midfielder had featured in.

An FAI appeals panel subsequently did deduct the points, but an arbiter, Liam Reidy SC, then returned them, a decision that was later upheld by the High Court.

Dooney conceded last night the club is unlikely to be so sympathetically treated this time around and the imposition of a 15-point penalty, which looks inevitable, leaves Shelbourne eight points clear of Shamrock Rovers.