Oisin Devlin's status for the game has been questioned
Ards have lodged a protest with the Irish FA over their Irish Cup defeat to Institute on Saturday at the Brandywell.
The Belfast Telegraph can reveal that the complaint from Ards relates to Oisin Devlin’s appearance as a second half substitute for the Championship leaders in their 1-0 victory that set up a home Quarter-Final against Linfield.
Highly rated teenager Devlin started the season with Institute and joined Larne in the January transfer window but was loaned back to the second tier side for the rest of the campaign.
It is believed that the Ards case centres around Devlin not being on Institute’s original team sheet. When the youngster came on the pitch there was surprise amongst the Ards management and officials.
It is understood that after the match, when assessing the Comet system, Ards discovered the 17-year-old midfielder had been included on the Institute team sheet after it had initially been submitted but the visitors contend that their manager John Bailie was not informed of this change which they feel under Irish FA Challenge Cup Rule 7C ought to have been the case.
The rule (7) they are pointing to in the protest comes under the title ‘Replacement of Players on the Team Sheet’.
It reads: “After the team sheets have been completed and submitted to the Comet Football Management System, and if the match has not yet kicked off, the following shall apply:
a) If any of the first eleven players named on the team sheet are not able to start the match due to Challenge Cup Rules – Season 2023/24 unexpected physical incapacity, they can be replaced only by any of the seven (7) substitutes named on the confirmed team sheet. The substitute(s) in question can
Read on belfasttelegraph.co.uk