Shelbourne's Withdrawal
The draw for the 2007 Setanta Cup competition was made on 7 December 2006 with the original competing teams being the identical ones to the previous year's competition. On 30 January 2007, however, Shelbourne announced that they were withdrawing from the competition for reasons relating to their financial troubles and the fact that they would be unlikely to field a team of players. Their place was given to the 2006 FAI Cup runners-up to Derry City, St Patrick's Athletic, despite the fact that the next best-placed in the previous season's league (Shelbourne's qualification route), who did not have a place in the Setanta Cup already, were Sligo Rovers. While it is likely that the organisers transferred Derry, who finished second in the league, into Shelbourne's empty slot, first in the league, for the purpose of official qualification and then accorded St Pat's qualification by way of the FAI Cup, this would have logically entailed Derry moving into Group 2 to fill Shelbourne's place, while St. Patrick's should compete in Group 1 in the place of the moved Derry. However, it is possible that for the purposes of the initial draw, teams were accorded lots on an alphabetical basis. Thus, it would follow that St. Patrick's would have been assigned the same lot as Shelbourne and would have, as a result, been drawn in the same slot anyway.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Setanta Sports Cup
Famous quotes containing the word withdrawal:
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—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)