Bermuda Football Association (BFA) has thrown cold water on Somerset Trojans' appeal to be reinstated into the FA Cup competition.

Earlier this week a BFA appeals committee, headed up by former president Dr.Gerard Bean, allowed the Association's original decision to boot Trojans out of the prestigious competition for fielding an ineligible player to stand.

In November of last year Trojans fielded club president Richard Scott in a FA Cup preliminary round clash with Key West Rangers in Somerset which the home team won 2-0.

Local football's governing body, however, later overturned the result after learning that Scott had contravened BFA policy that requires all players to produce player registration cards to the referee prior to kick off.

Trojans coach Dennis Brown acknowledged the fact that Scott was not in possession of his player's registration card on the day, but feels he was falsely mislead into thinking the matter had been dealt with after referee Anthony Francis allowed the Somerset stalwart to join his team-mates on the pitch.

"We went through the proper avenues and consulted with the ref (Francis) before the game," he claimed.

"The referee was well aware of the situation and if he would've said otherwise we would not have played Richard at all."

Francis, however, vehemently denied Brown's claims that he granted Scott permission to play in the match.

"I never provided anybody permission to play. I consulted with them (Trojans) to advise them that their player (Scott) did not have his card and their response was that the card is coming," he argued.

"It is not the referee's authority to grant or not grant permission for anyone to play in any football match.

"And any team that fields an ineligible player are wary of the risks because everything must be noted in the referee's report."

"From a referee's standpoint I think this whole matter is very unfortunate and unusual, but it was nothing I could do apart from report things as they happened."

Somerset learned of their fate at an appeals hearing held at BFA headquarters last Monday night, with a club source telling The Royal Gazette: "This is unreal. . . . but life goes on."