The FAI have refused a joint testimonial for Ray Houghton and John Aldridge. The decision means that members of the national team are a lot less likely to be rewarded with testimonial games in the future.

Yesterday's rejection of an application by Dalkey United for the joint testimonial serves notice of new stringent measures to be adopted by the FAI for such fixtures.

It is the first occasion that an application by a senior international has been rejected and, according to an FAI statement, it failed on two counts.

Firstly, the application, filed last month, was made too late to fit a game into the schedule for the coming year. Secondly, the FAI claim that neither Houghton nor Aldridge met the criterion of having played 75 international games.

Given that the FAI did not formulate their 1999 programme until early last week, both players are entitled to take issue with the assertion that their application was not submitted in time.

It is the second reason, however, which will surprise many. In the past, the rough rule of thumb was that a player with 50 international caps was qualified to seek a testimonial from the FAI.

A spokesman for the association said yesterday that a policy decision had been taken in August, 1994 to the effect that only those with 75 appearances to their credit would in future be considered for the lucrative "perk".

If it was, it was neither publicised nor adhered to by the FAI, for in the following two years Chris Hughton (53 caps) and Mick McCarthy (57 caps) were facilitated. The two most recent beneficiaries, Packie Bonner and Paul McGrath, comfortably qualified, however, with figures of 80 and 83 respectively.

The FAI started awarding testimonials in 1979 when John Giles, then player-manager of the national team, was rewarded for his outstanding service to the game. The English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish associations do not do so.

Testimonial games were originally designed to help players who had fallen on hard times. None of those rewarded by the FAI scheme fitted that category and the sense of inequity was heightened by the fact that some of the players who did received only cursory treatment by the association.

It would have required no great organisational expertise to have announced a cut-off point - say the year 2000 - for the new arrangement. Instead, the FAI have merely succeeded in embarrassing the two players in question by what amounts to a public rebuff.

Bernard O'Byrne, the FAI's chief executive, said yesterday: "Ray Houghton and John Aldridge have been magnificent servants to Irish football since making their international debuts 12 years ago. It is regrettable, but unfortunately we cannot facilitate this request on their behalf at this time."

Those words, one suspects, will ring hollow with the two players in question. Between them, Houghton (73 caps) and Aldridge (69) were major contributors to the most successful period in the history of Irish soccer. Born In Glasgow and Liverpool respectively, they were the living proof that ancestry can often be a more powerful spur than birthright in the international game.

The fact that they have now been snubbed in this manner adds insult to injury in what amounts to a substantial public relations gaffe by Merrion Square.