It has emerged that Crusaders' legal challenge following Tuesday's Irish Cup semi-final defeat to Larne revolves around the number of players on the pitch during the penalty shootout.
In one of the most controversial moments in the history of the competition, Crues goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey was shown a red card after being adjudged to have jumped his line to save three spot-kicks.
Tuffey was replaced in goal by defender Billy Joe Burns and Larne went on to win the shootout 6-5 to progress to Friday night’s showpiece with Linfield.
However, Crusaders are claiming Larne had too many players on the pitch following Tuffey's dismissal.
According to the laws of the game, if a team has one player sent-off, the opposing team must exclude one of their players from their penalty kick line-up. Both teams must also take the same number of kicks using the same number of players.
Law 10 reads: "If at the end of the match and before or during the kicks one team has a greater number of players than its opponents, it must reduce its numbers to the same number as its opponents and the referee must be informed of the name and number of each player excluded."
Larne had already removed one player before the shootout started after Crusaders forward Adam Lecky had been red-carded during the game.
Crusaders must lodge their complaint within 48 hours of the game, and is believed that will be delivered to the Irish FA on Thursday.
