FAI chief executive John Delaney has insisted he will take the evidence he has to any court in Ireland or the UK if Derry City wish to make a legal challenge against their expulsion from the League of Ireland.

Delaney insists that as many as 22 players held dual contracts with the club and that this practice led to over €337,000 in payments not being disclosed to the association.

The FAI met with Derry officials last Wednesday and afterwards convened an emergency board meeting of their own on Saturday, after which they meted out the punishment to the Candystripes.

Derry chairman Pat McDaid said this morning the club will take legal advice on the “draconian” sanction and added: “I’ve been looking at this, researching it and having various people research it and I can’t find any instance ever anywhere in the free world, where this has happened.

“We have been put out of football. The people involved in the process have to examine their consciences. I hope they can sleep at night.”

There appears, however, to be little sympathy within the FAI.

“I’ve been exasperated by the Derry City officials actions since the meeting that took place in Abbotstown on the previous Wednesday and … by the circus their celebrity-type solicitor (Dessie Doherty) has brought to the proceedings,” said Delaney this evening.

“This is a very serious issue, a very important issue for Irish football.

“If I tot up those 22 players in total, the annual difference would be €337,000. Now, that is the reason why Derry City football club’s contract had to be terminated.

“[It’s] unfair to the clubs who are playing fair - unfair to the Bray’s, to the Drogheda’s and the Galway’s, who have gone about their business properly.

“The facts … can be laid in front of any court in Ireland or the UK if that’s where some of those officials want to go.”

The FAI has also called on players who were signed up to dual contracts to reveal the full extent of the arrangements to the association or the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI).

“I am giving the players, the football players, both past and present, who were with Derry City, until 12 o’clock next Thursday … to give the full information in how these two contracts operated.

“They can either give it to the FAI or to Stephen McGuinness in the Professional Footballers’ Association,” he added on RTE television.

McDaid has maintained the second contract held by Darren Quigley, that ultimately drew attention to the practice, was merely a temporary measure intended to provide some security for both parties until a proper, longer-term agreement could be signed.

“We’re talking about a contract that was in place for less than two weeks,” he said. “It was a holding contract until a proper registration could be put in place – and the FAI have seen fit to put Derry City out of football for that.”