The Junior Committee of the Irish Football Association ruled at its meeting last night (Wednesday) that Bessbrook United "would remain in the Irish Junior Cup" despite what looks like a registration blunder by the Armagh club.

The player eligibility issue had raised the possibility of Enniskillen Rangers going to the final despite the fact that cup holders Rangers had been beaten on the pitch 3-1 or that Bessbrook would be thrown out and no final would take place.

Today, the Irish Football Association released the following statement: "The Irish FA Junior and Youth Cup Committee last night conducted an investigation into the eligibility of a Bessbrook United player who took part in the competition.

"The committee concluded that Bessbrook United should remain in the competition."

The Impartial Reporter did ask for more detail on the decision and what the issue was but our questions were not answered.

It is believed that Enniskillen Rangers had been contacted to say that Bessbrook had played an illegal player but this was outside the appeals process timeline and the club forwarded the information onto the Irish Football Association.

In the course of this investigation, it emerged that one of the Bessbrook players (different to the Rangers query) was not properly registered on the IFA's central registration computer system.

At last night's meeting, it is believed that the committee voted in favour of Bessbrook remaining in the competition on the grounds of rule 4 in the Junior Cup rules of the IFA's handbook that all players must be registered to play with their club in their respective leagues.

This is the way the Fermanagh and Western operates but then all these registrations are entered onto the IFA central registration system by the league registrar. It seems this did not happen with the Bessbrook player in question.

However, the IFA's rules also states that all clubs must satisfy themselves that all their players are correctly registered and this means that they should be on the IFA's central registration system which the secretary of all clubs has access to.

Enda Love chairman of Enniskillen Rangers said: "The club will meet tomorrow night Friday to look at the situation that has arisen and we will formulate a response after that meeting."

Rangers will then decide if they will appeal the decision of the Junior Committee made on Wednesday night.