THERE were widely differing opinions, among representatives of League of Ireland; clubs over the weekend about how much had been achieved by Friday night's marathon FAI council meeting in Dublin's Westbury Hotel.

Most council members contacted prefer to wait until the full Bastow Charleton report is delivered in the weeks ahead before the FAI's difficulties are tackled further. However, there was a feeling that Michael Hyland's position as president of the National League could come under threat.

Hyland, who had his offer to resign as an officer of the association rejected by the council during Friday's vote, was nominated for the position of National League president by Louis Kilcoyne when it became clear that Kilcoyne himself would be an unacceptable candidate for the position with member clubs.

As a result of Kilcoyne's departure from the FAI presidency some members of the council have suggested that Hyland's posit ion within the National League must be looked at and a move to replace him seems likely to come over the coming weeks.

On the FAI, meanwhile, there is general satisfaction with the findings of the preliminary report by Bastow Charleton. The report criticises the procedures for handling sales of tickets within the FAI and of the five FAI officers who were in place up until last week. There is a feeling the full report will prompt proposals for major structural changes within the organisation at the association's AGM in July.

Some of the report's findings were played down by club representatives, however, with the outstanding debts for tickets from the Ireland Holland game at Anfield put down to the routine reluctance of clubs to hand over money before they have to. "Generally, nobody would get tickets for one game until the money for the previous match has been paid, so I would think once the tickets for the Russian, game are coming out then everybody will cough up," said one club official.

On a future re organisation of the FAI there is an expectation that the recommendations of the full report from Bastow Charleton will be implemented, but there are differing views on whether the current officers are the right people to oversee those changes.

"We put forward a motion that the officer board should go and we are disappointed that that didn't happen," says Donal Crowther of Bohemians. Kilkenny City's Jim Rhatigan declines to rule out a full time role for the remaining officers in a "more professional" body.

In theory, the three officers could be opposed when they seek re election at the association's AGM in July, but in practice this is unlikely to happen with Pat Quigley generally seen as being entitled to become president because of the way the position is rotated among the constituent parts of the organisation.

There may, however, be problems for the ratification of the merger between the FAI and the League with representatives of many clubs unhappy with the way the FAI has handled recent events. But some delegates feel that the main problem during the past few weeks could be addressed by a more open approach in its dealings.

"Whatever happens now I think that the key word from this point on has to be transparency," says Rhatigan.

"As a club we've tried to steer clear of the personalities involved, but the powers of the officers were supposed to be honorary and it seems to have become a problem that they have become too powerful," said Pat Dolan of St Patrick's Athletic.