Longford Town face the possibility that they will be deducted nine points by the Eircom League's Board of Control this evening after it emerged that Avery John may not have been properly registered while playing his first three games for the club.

Trinidad and Tobago international John signed for the Flancare Park club in mid-September after a brief spell in England, where he had been refused a work permit to play for Colchester United, and made his debut against Cork City. Since then he has played against Bray Wanderers and Bohemians.

But it emerged last week that while the FAI had forwarded an international clearance certificate for the player to the association in England, so that the 27 year-old could sign for the second division club, a similar document had not been sent in the opposite direction when he returned to this country.

Longford chairman Jim Hanley contends that if there has been a problem then the club should not be penalised, as it is the league that is ultimately responsible.

"After all that happened last season," he says, "we put mechanisms in place to guard against precisely this sort of thing and we have faxes from the league listing the players who are eligible for various games and Avery is on the relevant lists."

The practice at the league, however, is to send out lists of registered players and in this case while nobody appears to dispute that the club registered John in good faith, the absence of an international clearance would make the defender ineligible to play for the club.

According to the rules it is the responsibility of the club to supply an international clearance if one is required. This is in part because the FAI's international department is not required to inform the league of any clearances that it has issued for players leaving the country and there is therefore no expectation that the organisation should be aware of whether a player needs a clearance or not.

Longford's member of the board, Donald Keogh, is expected to contend that because John was refused a work permit and never played a game for Colchester, the international clearance is an irrelevance. When registering the player Longford listed his previous club as having been Bohemians but the question on the form apparently relates to what club the player was last "associated" with and having attempted to sign for Colchester - it is unclear whether he actually signed forms - it appears that the English club should have been listed here. In any case it is reported that the league's chairman, Michael Hyland, has since contacted the English FA to establish whether the clearance certificate sent by the FAI could simply be cancelled retrospectively but it was the view of officials at Soho Square that it could not and that a new cert would indeed have to be issued.

The club's potential difficulties are compounded by the fact a separate league rule states in the event a player leaves the country, and a clearance is issued for him, he may not play again here for a minimum of eight weeks, a period that elapsed only yesterday.

In addition it is alleged that, upon discovering the discrepancy one of the league's administrators, Sharon Smith, phoned Longford manager Alan Matthews shortly before last week's game against Bohemians and informed him that John should not play.

Matthews denies getting the warning in time, claiming "I got a call from the league when I was in the dressing room and wasn't in a position to take the call". He concedes, however, that he answered the phone but maintains, "the call was breaking down and when I checked afterwards there was a message" (to the effect that John should not play).

It is expected that this evening's board meeting will consider the matter and take an initial decision on what action to take. But if its members feel that Longford have broken the rules then they are obliged to dock the club three points for each game in which the player has played illegally.

If Longford are docked nine points it would leave the club joint bottom, although whatever decision is taken today, it is almost certain to be appealed. "If we've done wrong then we'll stand up and accept the fact but I hope that the people in the league are prepared to do the same if, as we believe, the mistake turns out to be theirs," concludes Hanley.