If anybody up at 80 Merrion Square was really optimistic enough to imagine that 2003 was going to be the year that the FAI put its history of endless infighting and occasional bouts of bloodletting behind it, then their illusions were shattered yesterday as a long, rumbling row over a bonus paid to Mick McCarthy in the middle of the last World Cup exploded into public view amid a flurry of threats of legal action from those centrally involved.

The dispute erupted just as it was expected that the three officers of the association who have been working on finding McCarthy's successor - Kevin Fahy, Milo Corcoran and John Delaney - would arrive back in Dublin with a decision made on who would be appointed to fill the vacant manager's job.

The three concluded the interviews yesterday and were last night deliberating on who should be offered the position. After weeks of multiple nods and the odd wink with the regard to the identity of those in contention, it was finally confirmed that Bryan Robson, Philippe Troussier, Kevin Moran, Peter Reid, Frank Stapleton and John Aldridge had attended interviews over the past couple of days, in addition to Brian Kerr, who had met the panel last week. It was not confirmed whether Kenny Dalglish's absence from the list had been his choice or theirs.

The officers were said to have been "hugely impressed" by all of the people they met. Though there was little indication of who might have done particularly well, the three front-runners appear to remain Kerr, Troussier and Robson, although there was confirmation from elsewhere yesterday that Roy Keane would not be interested in taking on the position of assistant to the latter should the former English international be appointed.

The hope had been that with the interviews over and, quite possibly, a decision made, the three officers would immediately set about the task of negotiating the terms of the new man's employment and that an announcement would follow soon after the conclusion of those talks.

Instead, the matter of the appointment will have to be set to one side today as the three men join the rest of the association's board of management at the Red Cow Hotel in Dublin, where claims regarding the money paid to McCarthy last June will top the agenda.

The controversy centres on an accusation that McCarthy's agent, Liam Gaskin, sought to have a bonus of £100,000 (then equivalent to €168,000) paid to McCarthy prior to signing a new contract while in Korea only after first the manager and then Gaskin was advised to make the request by a senior figure in the association.

Gaskin has said that if he does not receive an apology he may take legal action over the issue. "What is being implied is that after saying that the deal was done I then withheld his (McCarthy's) signature until I got the sum of money from them. Word travels fast in this business and I won't have it said that that is the way I do things."

The figure who is claimed to have made the suggestion strenuously denies the allegation and insisted any public mention of his name in connection with it would also result in legal action.

After Gaskin sent an affidavit to the association last week, however, in which he outlined his version of events, Brendan Menton, the former FAI chief executive who was widely blamed within the association at the time for the bonus having to be paid on the basis that the contract had been agreed in February but not signed between then and the start of the World Cup finals, also gave a sworn statement to two of the FAI's officers in relation to the payment. There are reports that he, too, has been considering legal action on the basis that, if proven, these allegations would clear him of responsibility for the payment.

Quite what the association's directors will make of it all this afternoon remains to be seen, but one member suggested yesterday that all of the officers should stand down and offer themselves for re-election after having brought more "shame" on the organisation, while another said that while there may be "a case to answer" it is doubtful that even four people without strong views on all of the figures centrally involved could be found to oversee an inquiry. The result may yet be another appeal by the association to the outside (and, some would say, real) world for help with resolving its internal problems.

Before the board of management meeting, meanwhile, the Eircom League's board of control will meet to consider the response of Drogheda United to the conditions imposed on the club earlier in the week as a result of its recent financial problems.

Representatives of the club lodged the €100,000 required with the FAI yesterday, but there were some doubts expressed about the extent to which they met the other conditions specified.

Members of the new board are expected to attend today's meeting where they may provide further information and assurances, but it still seemed possible last night that the board may decide to take action against the club which could extend to relegating or even expelling the club from the league.