Offaly have been cleared by the Disputes Resolution Authority to play in their Leinster football semi-final against Wexford, which goes ahead on Sunday, July 2nd.

The DRA issued its decision on the "six replacements" controversy yesterday and found that Offaly had not breached any rules. Later in the day a statement from the Kildare County Board accepted the finding and said the county would now concentrate on their football qualifier with Cavan, which has been deferred to next weekend.

According to the DRA the substitution of Pascal Kelleghan by James Coughlan after the former had been asked to leave the field by the referee was not what the DRA termed a "counting substitution", as it was covered by the rules on temporary replacement for a blood injury.

When Kelleghan resumed playing for the second half, he replaced not his blood sub Coughlan but another player, Trevor Phelan. This, according to the DRA, was permissible without having the effect of retrospectively turning Coughlan's original appearance into a counting substitution - as argued by Kildare.

In response to the decision Kildare county chair Syl Merrins issued a statement confirming the county wouldn't be taking matters further.

"Following last night's Disputes Resolution Authority hearing Kildare GAA accept the decision of the Authority. We are disappointed to lose our case as we still believe the Blood Substitution Rule is open to serious abuse in its current format. So concerned are we about this situation that it is our intention to put a motion forward to next year's Congress to address the confusion on the blood subs rule"

Members of the DRC (committee appointed by the DRA), who heard the case were: Kevin Heffernan, Brian Rennick and Rory Mulcahy.