LEAGUE OF IRELAND:THE BOARD of FAI will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow to consider Derry City's future amid growing concerns about the club's ability to survive the deepening crisis that has enveloped it.

City have been struggling to meet their financial commitments for some time, with players largely unpaid for the last nine weeks. Other debts have been mounting to the point where, while estimates vary considerably, there appears to be upwards of €300,000 owed in total.

A portion of that is due to Dungannon Swifts, with the Irish League outfit entitled to a percentage of the deal that brought Niall McGinn to Celtic. Having failed to secure their money after a number of attempts, Dungannon recently initiated a court action to have City wound up.

The club’s more immediate problem might centre on the accuracy of financial documentation provided to the FAI over the course of this season. Speaking yesterday at the launch of a licensing system aimed at providing regulation of scouts operating for foreign clubs in Ireland, FAI chief executive John Delaney declined to reveal what had come to light at a meeting on Wednesday evening between officials representing the association and club, but said the matter would be considered by the association last night.

Soon after this meeting finished, it was announced that the board is to be convened tomorrow. The precise agenda was not revealed but Delaney described the state of affairs at the Brandywell as “grave” more than once yesterday before stating that “if we do find a situation where we’ve been given information which differs from what it should have been then we will take it very seriously”.

He provided a hint of just how “seriously” when he said that the matter is likely to be dealt with quickly as it might well have implications for the relegation play-offs.

That would, at the very least require a points deduction of something approaching 20 points although the sense in Abbotstown yesterday was that outright relegation is very much a possibility.

“I want to make it clear that I know what it means to the FAI to have Derry City competing in the league and also what it means to everyone in Derry to be a part of the League of Ireland but I would be really concerned about the meeting that took place last night,” said Delaney. “At this stage I hope that Derry City do survive but in what guise they might survive, I really don’t know.”

Cobh Ramblers were mentioned shortly afterwards and while a direct connection was not made, it was revealed that the FAI is looking at the possibility of appointing an independent, outside chairman to run the club for a period of a year to 18 months in an attempt to help stabilise it after what has been a turbulent spell.

Ramblers dropped out of the First Division last year after failing to lodge the required accounts with the association and amid considerable internal strife.

Cork City also remains a major concern, admitted Delaney, who criticised the “cavalier” manner in which a number of clubs had approached their finances over the last couple of years. He described some of the situations that have arisen this season at the Turner’s Cross outfit as “just rubbish” and said that the club’s problems had had a negative impact on the league generally.

Indeed, such is the seriousness of the situation generally at present that the players’ union, the PFAI, has threatened to go on strike at the start of next season unless the association guarantees more rigorous control over players’ contracts through its licensing system. “We don’t see it having got any better,” said the union’s general secretary, Stephen McGuinness, with regard to the league‘s financial situation.

Meanwhile, Delaney said he expected a deal to be finalised over the next week on the rights to broadcast the second leg of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against France in Paris on November 18th.

Reports yesterday said RTÉ and Sky were well short of the €1.5 million the French Football Federation were seeking for broadcast rights, and that a live broadcast of the game was in doubt.

However, Delaney dismissed this as “commercial posturing”.

Nominations for player of the year:Jason Byrne (Bohemian FC), Raffaele Cretaro (Sligo Rovers), Gary Deegan (Bohemian FC), Brian Shelley (Bohemian FC), Chris Turner (Dundalk), Gary Twigg (Shamrock Rovers).