Shamrock Rovers are set to return to Tolka Park for the rest of the season after concluding a deal yesterday with Shelbourne. This almost certainly means last night's league game against Dundalk will be the last in which Inchicore is used as their home.
While officials at the Drumcondra club declined to comment on the situation and those at Rovers were uncontactable yesterday, it is believed the outcome of the arbitration on the "Paul Marney affair" has prompted the return to the northside.
With the club's involvement in European competition this summer potentially on the line, Rovers board members are believed to be deeply unhappy with the decision by arbiter Liam Reidy to return the nine points deducted earlier from St Patrick's Athletic in connection with their failure to properly register Marney at the start of this season.
While St Patrick's were their landlords, however, the club apparently felt unable to openly pursue the matter and it is now likely they will join forces with Shelbourne to press for a further reassessment of Reidy's decision.
Shelbourne's chief executive, Ollie Byrne, yesterday called on Eircom League Commissioner Roy Dooney to resign after expressing dismay at "the general way that the league is being run".
The latest trouble between the club and league is due to Dundalk's decision, after encouragement from Dooney, to put next week's meeting between the two sides at Oriel Park back from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon in order to provide RTÉ with a centrepiece for their highlights programme, Sunday Sport.
Byrne, who cited another recent dispute over the timing of an under-21 cup match involving Shelbourne and Derry City (Derry were eventually handed a walkover), accused Dooney of double standards and expressed anger that he had learned of the switch yesterday morning from a supporter after Dundalk had carried the news on its website.
"I'm running a business here," he said yesterday, "and we have already made a number of arrangements based on a Thursday night and yet, it seems, we don't even merit the courtesy of a phone call. It's typical of the way this league is being run and the commissioner should take responsibility for it and go."
For his part, Dooney expressed surprise that Shelbourne, in common with other clubs, are so reluctant to cooperate with RTÉ.
"Ever since I took this job there has been a clamour for regular television exposure in a primetime slot and now that we have got that we seem to be having nothing but problems providing RTÉ with games.
"This week RTÉ are showing a Gaelic football match in the programme and next week they were threatening to go with rugby. Given the figures which the programme has been delivering - last week's was watched by 210,000 (40,000 more than Saturday evening's English Premiership coverage) - it's absolutely vital that we provide them with suitable games and that's why I called Dundalk about the game.
"What the problem here seems to boil down to is the fact that the news leaked out through Dundalk's website before the club made contact about the switch."
Dooney confirmed Dundalk will be compensated for making the switch and said that in future all clubs will receive a payment aimed at making up for any potential loss on the gates.
"It's only fair," he said, "because we recognise that they are taking a hit."
Robbie McGuinness of St Patrick's Athletic, meanwhile, became the fifth Eircom League player to be called into Don Givens' under-21 squad for this month's four-day training session at Bisham Abbey in England. He replaces Michael Keane of Preston North End.
