Offaly football is facing turmoil with tonight's county board meeting expected to be asked to dismiss team manager Paul O'Kelly, writes Seán Moran.

Whereas he himself was unavailable for comment, sources close to O'Kelly said the manager had been handed an ultimatum: resign or be fired.

The news comes as a shock after a season which saw Offaly narrowly defeated after a replay by eventual Leinster champions Laois and in extra-time in the qualifiers by Roscommon. O'Kelly is just one year into a three-year appointment subject to review.

County board members will tonight hear the report of the review committee, which is the basis of the ultimatum. One member expressed surprise at the recommendation. "You would think a review committee would only have the power to remove a manager if the season had gone disastrously wrong."

O'Kelly has made it clear he won't resign so it will be up to the county board to dismiss him if they accept the recommendations of the committee. The reasons behind this turn of events are still not known.

Although players were said by the committee to have been "widely consulted" one player contacted by The Irish Times denied this was so.

"There's only one player I'm aware of who was interviewed and he would have been positive. I only heard about this when Paul asked had I heard the news," said the player, who wished to remain anonymous. "I thought he was going to tell me about his new selectors. This came out of the blue."

A similar review committee for the hurling team is believed to recommend that manager Michael McNamara be asked to accept the appointment of a coach. McNamara was unavailable for comment last night but would be considered unlikely to accept such an imposition.

Meanwhile, the decision to push ahead with the development of the Northern End in Croke Park means the Hill 16 terrace will once more be unavailable to Dublin supporters in next year's Leinster championships.

"We would hope to start before the end of this year and finish by the end of August 2004," said GAA PRO Danny Lynch.

This will cut the ground's capacity to around 69,000, a reduction that shouldn't make too much difference but which nonetheless represents a shortfall of 10,500 on the current capacity.

Earlier this year in preparing for the Special Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in Croke Park, the terrace was closed for Dublin's provincial semi-final defeat by Laois.

Despite fears that Dublin's early exit from the championship and qualifiers would mean a fall in revenue at big matches, attendances have held up well and this year's All-Ireland semi-finals attracted a larger aggregate than last year's.

Lynch also revealed that demand for the Hill has been quite low in Dublin's absence.

"The average crowd on the terrace has been only 50 per cent of capacity this year. Last Sunday was different but the Dublin minors were in action," he said.

Croke Park's actual capacity is higher than that permitted under planning regulations so the GAA is able to switch spectators around the ground, depending on demand for the Hill. If Dublin are playing, a portion of seated accommodation is left empty to maximise terrace capacity.

On completion of the new terracing the permitted capacity will rise to 82,500 but the development will be completed to facilitate the installation of seating should that be the longer-term trend of spectator demand.

Lynch also explained why the final phase is going ahead at this stage. "The motivating factor was the consequence of delaying it any longer. Between interest rates and potential inflation and construction inflation it was felt up to €4 million could be lost if the economic climate changed.

"Planning permission runs out in seven years and you could lose it if you didn't act. It was also felt that we could pay the sum back over 12 years without impacting on our ability to maintain grant levels. It will cost €27 million, which brings borrowings on the development to €100 million."