Relations between FAI National League leaders Shelbourne and St Patrick's Athletic, the champions, have steadily turned sour in the build-up to tomorrow afternoon's clash between the teams at Richmond Park.

Pat Dolan, the St Patrick's manager, appears to have kicked off the exchange between the rival clubs in his weekly column in the Sun on Tuesday when he criticised the way Shelbourne is run and, in particular, its recent link with English champions Manchester United.

But matters deteriorated further yesterday following comments by Shelbourne chairman Gary Brown regarding the continued determination of the FAI's leadership to press ahead with Eircom Park despite suggestions that the Government might be prepared to inject over £50 million into the game here if the project was abandoned.

Brown described the association's current policy as "folly" at a time when "the grass roots of the game are starved of cash and the Eircom League is simply not working".

He went on: "There's been a lot of talk of a big windfall for the game in 10 years. But the problem is that the game here simply can't wait 10 years, it's dead on its feet from lack of investment right now."

However, St Patrick's Athletic president Tim O'Flaherty said yesterday: "Gary Brown and Shelbourne have gone out on a limb and by doing that they've damaged the league. Their criticism of Eircom Park is very sad because this is something that would be for all of Irish football. The same certainly can't be said of the stadium proposed by the Government."

O'Flaherty dismissed the idea that the game here might benefit to the tune of £50 million if Eircom Park was to abandoned as "hearsay" adding: "I certainly haven't seen any package and I think that it's possible that Shelbourne have another agenda here, different reasons for not wanting to see Eircom Park happen."

Asked what these might be, he would say only that "people will know what I'm talking about".

In a remarkable attack by an official of one leading club on that of another, O'Flaherty went on to attack Shelbourne's link with Manchester United as short-sighted and accused the Tolka Park club's directors of being prepared to put their own interests ahead of those of the game here.

Brown had earlier described Dolan's original comments as "scandalous", insisting that it was "outrageous for him to interfere in the running of another club".

The latest remarks by O'Flaherty, who was speaking at the launch of his club's yearbook yesterday, will only inflame the tensions between the two clubs, problems which have existed for some time but which have generally been expressed by Dolan and Shelbourne's Ollie Byrne.

Following Tuesday's publication of Dolan's article in the Sun, Byrne reacted by threatening to deny the paper's reporters access to Tolka Park or the club's squad, a ban that was subsequently withdrawn yesterday.

In light of the various exchanges, though, it was hard to take yesterday's press release from St Patrick's headed Party time at the Stadium of Light as being at least slightly tongue-in-cheek. It's hard to imagine a surplus of holiday spirit about the place, particularly in the directors' box, although fireworks are a distinct possibility.

Meanwhile, the dates for the Harp Lager FAI Cup semi-finals have been agreed, with Galway United's game against Shelbourne in Terryland Park set for Friday March 31st at 7.35. The game between Bohemians and Bray Wanderers will kick off at 4.0 on Sunday April 2nd. Both games with be broadcast live by RTE television.