Officials move to avoid turmoil

League of Ireland:League of Ireland officials will meet this morning to discuss how to resolve the growing problems being encountered by clubs in relation to the registration of players who have played for two other teams since July 1st of last year.

Because of the different timing of the international and Irish seasons, more than 40 players, including Waterford's Ray Scully, Bray's Alan Cawley and Peter Hynes of Derry City, are now believed to be ineligible under Fifa rules to play this evening for the league clubs they joined during recent weeks.

In cases like Scully's the player finds himself in difficulty despite having made entirely legitimate moves during officially established transfer windows.

The league's board will now decide how to proceed on the matter which, having apparently been completely overlooked last year, threatens to throw the new season into turmoil.

Merrion Square officials have been collating information in relation to all the individual cases and one possibility being floated yesterday is that a delegation will be sent to Fifa headquarters in Zurich in the hope that a resolution can be achieved.

Stephen Paisley looked set to join St Patrick's Athletic last night after being granted a release from his contract with Longford Town. Bohemians are also reported to be interested in the highly-rated defender.

FAI chief executive, John Delaney has welcomed the allocation of €1 million in additional funding towards the cost of implementing the association's Technical Plan. The new money will be used to help meet the cost of 19 individual projects within the overall scheme for the development of the game.