Points loss ruled out

National League commissioner Roy Dooney has ruled out the prospect of Shelbourne being deducted points as a result of Dermot Keely's post-match outburst on Wednesday night, but he has written to the manager asking that he either back up his claims of corruption within the league or withdraw them publicly.

"A lot of what Dermot said is excusable in the heat of battle and, to be honest, I'm not really bothered what he says about me, I'm more thick skinned than that," says Dooney. "But I take the view that the league is made up of 21 clubs and all the people who represent them at our various decision-making bodies. It's unfair on them and potentially damaging to our relationship with sponsors for this type of allegation to be bandied about and then left hanging there."

Dooney says that he expects to receive a reply from Keely over the coming days but that, if he doesn't, then the matter is likely to be considered at Monday week's meeting of the league's management committee where a variety of sanctions could be imposed both on Keely and his club.

In addition to referring to the league as being "corrupt" and "rotten" in the aftermath of Wednesday night's highly charged defeat by Shamrock Rovers, Keely accused Dooney of "bottling" the first significant decision he was faced with as commissioner, the original hearing into St Patrick's failure to register Paul Marney.

He went on to claim that Shelbourne was suffering a backlash as a result of Ollie Byrne having played a central role in having the decision not to dock Pat Dolan's side nine points reversed.

But Dooney claimed yesterday that such claims were part of a "persecution complex" that has developed around Tolka Park.

"At the same time as all this has been going on, I have received a complaint from the club about the generally provocative atmosphere which seems to be prevailing at the moment in which they cite the actions of several other clubs."

The league official says that while the current run of controversies has taken him somewhat by surprise, he believes that things will calm down slightly now that the spate of midweek programmes has ended.