Kilkenny City were thrown out of the Harp Lager FAI Cup last night. A meeting of the league's management committee decided unanimously that what the club had described as an unprecedented injury crisis did not justify their refusal to travel to Ballybofey for the scheduled replay of last Saturday's quarterfinal. The club had claimed that it was not in a position to field a team on Tuesday and appealed to have the game rescheduled. But the committee found against them, handed the tie to Finn Harps and fined Kilkenny £2,500 for failing to turn up.
Kilkenny City officials reacted with predictable dismay to the decision with club secretary Jim Rhattigan maintaining last night that the First Division side had been treated harshly by Harps and the league.
"We weren't looking for any huge favours," said Rhattigan, "just a bit of decency and I think it's sad for the game that we didn't get it this evening. People keep saying that we refused to travel for the game but that's not the case, we couldn't travel because we didn't have enough fit players and what this amounts to is a small club being punished for going through a bad spell with injuries."
Rhattigan also denied once again that Michael Reddy's unavailability on Tuesday night had been the central consideration in Kilkenny's decision not to travel north. "Not at all, for a lad from this club to be representing his country in a match like that is tremendous for Kilkenny City Football Club. We were delighted for Michael and the fact that he was with Brian Kerr's squad in Belfast had nothing to do with our decision other than it was one more player we were without."
The club have called an emergency board meeting for Monday when the three-man committee will consider their options. An appeal is still possible but the fact that yesterday's decision was arrived at without any support being shown by other clubs' representatives would suggest that the only thing at issue, should the matter be pursued further, would be the size of the fine imposed.
Harps will be less keen on the decision, also taken yesterday, to pencil in the second replay of the tie between Bray and Sligo for next Tuesday night at the Carlisle Grounds. Harps had planned to play Sligo themselves that night and having lost Tuesday's potential gate receipts and having played only five home matches since early December, they could have done with the income.
As a result of Kilkenny's disqualification, Finn Harps will meet Galway United in the second of next month's semi-finals. That game will take place at Terryland Park at 3.0 on Easter Sunday (April 4th). The other semi-final, between Shelbourne and either Bray Wanderers or Sligo, will be played two days earlier, at 5.30 on Good Friday. Both matches will be screened live by RTE television.
Reports in the Mirror newspaper today suggest that Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB company has been given the all-clear to buy Manchester United. The £623 million bid from Sky for the Premiership leaders is believed to have been sanctioned by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. The Commission delivered their decision to Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers yesterday.
