Any player found guilty of betting against his own team will face an immediate lifetime ban from football in Ireland - but the FAI are unlikely to inflict punishment on a club whose players may have been involved in betting scams.

Irish football, having endured one of the worst seasons ever in terms of bad PR, was today dealing with reports that the FAI will investigate reports of irregular betting patterns in recent games played by St Patrick's Athletic, especially their recent home defeats to relegation strugglers Cobh Ramblers and Galway United.

The domestic game has not had to deal with this issue before on an official level, despite rumours every couple of years of players being involved in the illegal practice of betting against their own team, and so there is no ready-made punishment for any person or any club who are guilty of the offence.

"We would look around for past episodes in other leagues and other countries to deal with it because we've never had to deal with it before," an FAI source said today.

"It's hard to know until we have all the facts but I would envisage it being difficult to impose a points deduction on a team, or have them relegated, if one of their players was involved in this, the most likely outcome would be a lifetime ban from football - and hopefully all sports - for the player or players involved."

Pats, who had a 2-0 win over relegated UCD last night, have confirmed that they will investigate the matter.

"Yesterday afternoon I learned that a national newspaper was running a story today linking St Pat's players with allegations of betting on two of our fixtures this season," said Pats CEO Richard Sadlier.

"I informed Fran Gavin, Director of the eircom league of Ireland that I would be looking into the matter, and sought advice from the local Gardai.

"While I would expect and hope there would be no truth behind such unsubstantiated rumours, I felt it would be irresponsible not to investigate the matter further.

"I informed the playing squad of these allegations yesterday evening and we will be seeking the full co-operation of the FAI in our effort to discover if any of our players were involved."

A number of First Division fixtures in last season's campaign did cause concern among figures in the game here but the issue has arisen again this season.

First, bookmakers Paddy Power reported irregular betting patterns ahead of the Monaghan United-Longford Town game two weeks ago, while this week St Patrick's Athletic have been dragged into the matter, and the FAI are also now involved.

"The Football Association of Ireland today confirmed that it will carry out an investigation into suspected irregular betting patterns around recent St Patrick's Athletic FC fixtures," the FAI said in a statement.

The issue has brought to light the large amounts of cash being wagered on eircom League football, especially abroad, as there is an unusual degree of interest in Irish soccer among the betting community in Ireland.

However it has also raised the question of how seriously the Irish bookies treat the game here, with some companies accused of not doing their homework. One of the game in question with St Pats was their home match with Galway United last month, where Galway were rated at 7/2 to win the game.

Not only were Galway on a good run of form and fighting for survival in the Premier Division, against a Pats side with one eye on the FAI Cup semi-final four days later, it was also known in football circles that Pats would rest their senior players for the tie. In the end Pats made nine changes to their starting XI, so it was no real surprise that Galway won the game.

- Aidan Fitzmaurice