The FAI's licensing committee is expected to inform Shamrock Rovers officials today what, if any, sanctions the club will face over irregularities in relation to the accounts element of the Dublin outfit's licence application for the current season.

Directors of the club presented their case to the First Instance committee of the association's licensing body and expressed satisfaction afterwards with the way the meeting had gone.

Having initially believed that they were going to be informed of the committee's decision last night, the directors were told that the process was to take a little longer.

The committee could, on the one hand, choose to do no more than admonish the club for what Rovers officials insist was an innocent mistake or, on the other, withdraw their licence, thereby throwing their immediate future in senior football into doubt.

Relegation or the imposition of a significant points deduction were other possibilities mentioned by FAI officials earlier this week.

Last night's hearing was called after it emerged that the wrong accounts had been submitted to the FAI as part of the club's licence application.

When the decision was taken by the Rovers directors to put the club into examinership they were obliged to have a second audit of the books done and club officials claim that it was at this point it emerged that the figures presented to the association had been for 2003 rather than 2004.

An FAI official insisted last week that the problem was more complex than this but the Rovers position is that it was the club that drew the association's attention to the problem as soon as they became aware of it.

"I think we got a very, very fair hearing," said the club's chairman, Tony Maguire after the meeting. "We explained ourselves as openly and honestly as we could and I honestly felt that there was some sympathy in there for our position."

The hearing came on a day when "six or seven" separate parties expressed an interest in writing to the examiner in relation to taking over the club. At a meeting organised by the supporters group, the 400 club, last night the possibility of the fans making a bid for the club was also discussed but it seems more likely that such a move would involve the supporters taking a minority holding.

The National League Supporters Association, meanwhile, has reacted angrily to the news that it will receive substantially fewer tickets for the Israel game than it has for other international matches over the last two years.

The organisation described the block booking arrangement they had with the association as "fraudulent" but Merrion Square sources say the particular deal struck with the organisation made tickets available on the basis that the visiting association did not, as the Israelis have, take up their full allocation of seats for a competitive game.