Ballymena Provincial Football League Decision following a meeting with Coagh United held at Chimney Corner FC on Tuesday July 4, 2023.

BALLYMENA and PROVINCIAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

(Founded: - BALLYMENA and DISTRICT JUNIOR LEAGUE 1948-49 to 1983-84)

(BALLYMENA and DISTRICT PREMIER LEAGUE 1984-85 to 2000-01)

(BALLYMENA and PROVINCIAL INTERMEDIATE FOOTBALL LEAGUE 2001-02 to 2004-05)

(BALLYMENA and PROVINCIAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE 2005-06)

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Chairperson Mr. Ian Shiels Secretary

Vice Chairperson Mr. Robert Fenton

Secretary

Mr. Wm Mc Ilroy BEM

12. Rathlin Drive

BT43 6NH

Treasurer Mr. Wm McIlroy BEM Ballymena

Phone. 028 25644326 Mob. 07718809314
Email = billymcilroy@btinternet.com

To: Ms Carla Dallas 7th July 2023

Secretary

Coagh United Football Club

Cc: Ms Nuala McAlorum

Secretary

Donegal Celtic Football Club

Ballymena Provincial Football League decision following a meeting with Coagh United held at Chimney Corner FC on Tuesday July 4, 2023.

In attendance for the League were chairman Ian Shiels, vice-chair Robert Fenton and Secretary Billy McIlroy. Representing Coagh Utd, Secretary Carla Dallas, legal adviser James Lannon and Simon Graham.

The purpose of the meeting was to consider a referral back from the IFA Appeal's Committee following an appeal from Donegal Celtic heard on June 8, 2023. Celtic contested that the league had failed to apply their own registration rule (8a) which states: "All clubs are responsible for registering their own players using the IFA Comet system and as laid down in the IFA Professional Game Player Registration Regulations. Those regulations make it clear all mandatory details on a registration must be 'clear, accurate, reliable and complete in accordance with IFA requirements.'

An initial decision by the League committee to rule in favour of Coagh followed an investigation into the issue surrounding the Donegal Celtic challenge on May 27,2023 based on Aaron Campbell being registered for the 2022/23 season by Coagh with the birth date of 10/10/190 and not with his correct DOB of 30/10/90. Thus, Donegal Celtic claimed he had been registered incorrectly, making him ineligible and thus, their claim for the awarding of three points lost in a match against Coagh played on December 5, 2022.

It was determined by the LC that Coagh were not solely responsible for a wrong date of birth appearing on his registration form for the 2022-23 season as the incorrect details resulted from a merging of player passports in 2019 of two Aaron Campbells, one who played for Coagh and the other for Drumaness Mills.

The League decision was also based on information provided by the IFA Comet team which produced a list of registrations for both Aaron Campbells.

For the Coagh United Aaron Campbell, that list with the DOB of 30:10: 1990, showed his Coagh registrations from 2007 up to 01:07: 2022. A separate list was also provided for an Aaron Campbell DOB 10:10:1990 registering for Ballynahinch Olympic and Drumaness Mills up to 05:03:2019.

The LC's interpretation was that Aaron Campbell was deemed by the IFA Comet team as having been or should have been, properly registered for Coagh on a continuous four-season block re-registration basis allowed by the IFA and used by Coagh Utd and many other clubs. However, that interpretation was knocked down by the Appeals Committee.

In upholding Donegal Celtic's appeal, the AC stated the league's explanation for their decision, was 'unsatisfactory' and the AC found no support for it in an e-mail sent by the IFA Comet team on June 7, 2023 which admitted: "Following a review of our records, we have identified that two individual profiles existed for different players of the same name (Aaron Campbell (30:10:1990) and Aaron Campbell (10:10: 1990) and these were erroneously merged back in 1990 (sic). Now that we are aware of this information, it is our intention to carry out a process to disconnect the two records..."

For the record, the merger was 2019 and not 1990 and the records have still not been disconnected.

Furthermore, the Appeals Committee said the IFA's e-mail did no more "than indicate to the Respondent (League), that there had been an erroneous merger of two players records in 2019 which the IFA was now (in 2023) going to address. She (Tracey Scott) did not address the question of Coagh United's responsibility to provide accurate information on a season-by-season basis when completing registration forms for players it wishes to register. She was not addressing the issue of player eligibility, or the accuracy of the registration details submitted by Coagh United for the 2022-23 season in respect of Aaron Campbell. In particular, the e-mail did not resolve for the Respondent whether the 'chaos' caused by the merger of player records, caused or contributed to the failure of Coagh United in July 2022, to provide an accurate date of birth for the player in the extract of the registration form viewed by the Committee (Appeals). Therefore, it was unclear to the Committee how the Respondent could ever have reached the decision set out in its letter to the Appellant dated 8 June. Having regard to the content of the extract of the registration form, Coagh United submitted a date-of-birth information which was plainly inaccurate."

The League also believed that the latter's e-mail of June 7, 2023, was highly significant. It admitted to an 'erroneous merger in 2019' and it has been clearly shown that was not the responsibility of Coagh United who could not and would not be permitted, to do such a merger.

Coagh's case is that they processed the registration correctly for 2018-19 and these details were subsequently altered by Comet/Analyticom, through it appears, a misunderstanding by the latter that there was only one Aaron Campbell and hence the subsequent merger. This continued uncorrected for four seasons without anyone realising the registration disparity until it was highlighted by Donegal Celtic on May 28, 2023.

Ms Dallas explained to the league at the review hearing that the IFA allows block-booking for players whose registrations are renewed season-on-season by the calling up a list of those players and ticking boxes which deems them accepted for the new season. Carla said, "These are the players who are staying, so you go down the list and hit a button which generates the registrations. We had no reason to check the dates because the correct information had been submitted in 2018 and you expect that to follow on in the system unless a club requests a change. Signatures on the form are generated electronically, so it is easy to overlook a digit on a date when processing so many players at the touch of a button, especially if you don't keep a record of players birthdates."

"We would not check those birthdates because the information was already there on the system. We do not get copies of e-mail registrations as these go to the players.

"We in fact did not put in Aaron's profile details as these followed on from his transfer from Desertmartin in December 2018 and we confirmed his correct birthdate them by checking it against his passport as it was his first registration with Coagh. He has been a regular player for us since that date."

Mr Lannon relied on a legal point called "Presumption of regularity" which the League believes to mean "Where it has been proved that an official act has been done, it will be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the said act complied with any necessary formalities and that the person who did it, was duly appointed."

In other words, something that should have been done, was in fact deemed done. The League interprets the list of registration and birthdates for the two Campbells as submitted by the IFA, as meaning that the correct registration records in the profile of both players should have been done and would be done in 2023, thus confirming what should have been correct on the Comet system from 2019 onwards.

Of course, the league officials have no legal authority and are happy to stand corrected on any legal point raised.

On a point of causation, the league takes the view that the Comet/Analyticom operation system sowed the seeds for the procedural mistakes that occurred in this unique case. This is backed up by written proof from Tadas Dunauskas, the Implementation Specialist for Analyticom.

In an e-mail produced at the Appeals hearing and sent to the IFA Comet team on Feb 6, 2019, it says: "I have good and bad news for you. We run (sic) a scan through your database and we found a number of duplicates (sic) which you be able to merge. However, there are over 13k potential duplicates (sic), and this is really manual work in order to keep the data restored (registrations data).

"Also, there is a lot of persons which don't have DOB and there are many of them who are involved in competitions, like referees, but it might be that they also have duplicates (sic) in the system as a player's coaches or even referees. You need to put manually DOB or add to attached spreadsheet and send it back."

The Specialist then provided de-duplication instructions which in a return e-mail on July 3, 2019, the Comet team said: "We have finally completed our review of duplicate registrations as per the attached spreadsheet. Can you let us know once you have updated this information in the system so we can send a communication out to clubs regarding the same."

In a matter called 'FIFA Connect,' a general letter to all leagues was sent from the Comet FMS on December 17, 2021 highlighting that the Comet FMS had been integrated with the FIFA Connect application, the primary aim being to identify duplicate registrations in different countries and to avoid circumvention of the FIFA TMS system which issues international clearance. This integration also identified a number of potential duplicates within the IFA Comet system itself.

It added: "The IFA administration is currently reviewing the potential conflicts that have been generated by FIFA Connect and early indications that the following will be identified." Among those were:

"Duplicates which can be merged without incident (e.g., Joe Bloggs and Joseph Bloggs) with the same DOB and history.

"Duplicates created in error by accident or design.

"Duplicates created where a club has registered a player with a different variation of the name or date of birth and who already has a Comet ID.

"Incomplete registrations where a club registrar has entered details incorrectly and not confirmed the registration and has created a new ID."

Coagh were contacted on December 22, 2021, highlighting that a player Kian O'Neill registered with them had a duplicate registration and was also registered to Magherafelt Sky Blues as Kian George O'Neill. Coagh were asked to confirm that this was one and the same person and having done so, his record for Magherafelt was expunged from the Comet system.

The Campbell case was different because it was not a duplication issue but an incorrect merger of two different players with different ID numbers, different DOBs and different clubs, into one and the same player. Whoever done the merger (later proved to have been Analyticom), clearly did not realise there were two Aaron Campbells with almost the same dates of birth. Thus, the two players became one i.e Aaron Campbell of Coagh with his photo but with the ID number and DOB of the Drumaness player. It seems the latter quit playing from the end of the 2019 season and thus Drumaness would not have been re-registering him and therefore would have had no reason to query anything.

Coagh claim they were unaware that the details recorded i.e ID number and DOB on the system from 01:07: 2019 onwards, referred to the wrong Aaron Campbell and this has existed for four seasons. Donegal Celtic argued Coagh should have done regular checks on player details which is a fair point and would certainly be more pertinent if the IFA did not allow block re-registrations and insisted on individual registration as mistakes would be minimised in view of players having to produce ID to be registered for a new season.

Coagh said that they do not receive copies of confirmed registrations, rather such goes out to players via e-mail.

It seems no contact was made by the Comet team to either Coagh or Drumaness Mills regarding the merger of the two Campbells as confirmed in a June 27 2023 reply to the League secretary who queried why Aaron Campbell was registered for both Coagh and Drumaness in 2019 - a player can't be registered by two clubs at the same time - and whether there was any contact with the clubs concerning the two players.

The reply from Tracey Scott said: "Further to your recent correspondence received on June 26, 2023 which asked had contact been made with Coagh and Drumaness alerting them to the fact that two players were merged into one, I can confirm that we didn't hold any records to suggest that communication was sent to Coagh United or any other club at the time of the de-duplication process."

In the league's view, which was understandable because it appears they did not know what Analyticom had done until June 1, 2023.

On May 30, 2023, Tracey asked Analyticom to confirm that the merger took place at their end, possibly around July 2019.

Tadas Dunauskas replied on June 1: "That is correct. He (Aaron Campbell) was merged in the early system implementation stage during the de-duplication process."

Before any merger took place, both Coagh and Drumaness, in the League's opinion, should have been contacted and asked to confirm whether they had an Aaron Campbell registered and playing for them rather than assuming there was only one player. No doubt both clubs would have confirmed they were separate individuals and that would have prevented the erroneous merger.

On the other hand, Coagh cannot escape the fact that regular checks are advisable in view of the need for correct registrations at all times and lessons should be learned by all parties going forward.

The League believes there is an urgent need for a review of the registration process, proper records need to be kept by the IFA and not the clubs, while it should be clarified who is responsible for errors when mergers take place. Can one party be held responsible for blunders made by another party, especially when the latter is the governing body and responsible for the implementation of the Comet FMS provided by Analyticom?

Finally, the League in its review submission, refer to paragraph 24 and 27 (b) of the AC's conclusions and disposal.

Para 24: "It is unclear to the Committee whether the difficulties created by regrettable merging of player records during the IFA's de-duplication process in 2019 created circumstances, perhaps of a technical nature which could have caused or contributed to the apparent failure of Coagh United to provide an accurate date of birth for the player in the registration form relating to the 2022-23 season. That is an issue which the Committee felt unable to resolve in the absence of any evidence, but it an issue which may be germane to the question of player eligibility. It is certainly an issue in respect of which Coagh will be entitled to express a view on should they so wish, before the issue of their player eligibility is determined."

Coagh have now availed of that and during the League's review, fresh information has arisen which shows that mistakes were made around 2019 by both parties.

The Coagh registrar should have done a routine check and not relied entirely on the profile entered correctly on the Comet system in 2019, being automatically transferred.

However, in the League's analysis, the primary cause of the unnecessary merger emanated from a serious blunder made by and confirmed by Analyticom and subsequently not picked up by the IFA's Comet FMS. This in fact meant Coagh, without them or anyone else realising it, were registering the wrong Aaron Campbell for four seasons due to their player being given the wrong ID number and date of birth.

The Committee referred the matter back to the League stating that it was not for them to resolve this eligibility issue and apply a sanction.

Under Para 27 (b), the League was directed to "carry out any such further investigation as may be considered necessary" and "should seek to establish whether the merging of player records during the IFA's de-duplication process in 2019 created circumstances which caused or contributed to the apparent failure of Coagh United to provide an accurate date of birth for the player in the registration form relating to the 2022-23 season."

The League, as seen in this report, have investigated every jot and tittle surrounding this case and are of the view, that what happened in 2019 re the merging of the two players' passports, had a very significant part to play in the wrong ID number and incorrect DOB appearing on the 2022-23 registration form. On the balance of culpability, Comet/Analyticom erred in a greater fashion than Coagh overlooking under a block-booking process, one digit on a birth date, i.e., 10/10/90 not being 30/10/90.

Aaron Campbell was a regular player for four seasons with Coagh, so he was not registered as new player during that time, nor was there any attempt to register him under false pretences or in breach of a suspension or rules of a competition. In the League's view, sporting integrity was not undermined as a result of him playing for Coagh from 2019 to 2023.

The League rule 8 (a) regarding all clubs being responsible for the accuracy of registration details, was never meant to cover a situation where the wrong information is transposed onto a player's passport by a systematic failure for which that club had no in-put, resulting in bona-fide information being erroneously changed and bringing about a deleterious outcome for the club.

Taking on board all matters in the round following this exhaustive review, along with the points raised by both parties, the League determine that no sanction will be applied to Coagh for playing Aaron Campbell in matches during the 2022-23 season.

Donegal Celtic have the right to appeal this decision as outlined under Article 14 of the IFA Articles of Association.

Dated July 7, 2023.

Robert Ian Shiels Chairman

Robert Fenton Vice Chairman

William C McIlroy BEM Secretary