BSP rivals Grays claim they had taken up their one-year option on the striker's contract but Stags, the player and his agent all believed he was a free agent when he signed and played for Mansfield Town this season.

• Ineligible players: Stags facing 2 investigations and points deduction?

O'Connor joined the Stags just before the start of the season, but then late in September the FA revealed that it was investigating his signing.

To confuse matters further, the striker had not played for the Stags against Grays a few weeks earlier.

The FA has previously said that the Stags have been 'charged with an an alleged breach of FA Rule C.1(i(i)) which states that a player under written contract may only play for the club for which he is registered.

An FA spokesman told Chad on Tuesday: "We have had further correspondence from Mansfield Town and we have been in touch with Grays.

"This does seem to have been dragging on a while, but it looks like there will probably be a hearing down here between now and Christmas."

When news of the row first broke, Grays chairman Woodward told The Non-League Paper: "We took up our option on Aaron, but he started playing around. We said 'You can talk to whoever you like, but let them know they've got to talk to us to release you because although I don't want a fee, we want a sell-on clause'.

"He turned up at Mansfield and signed, which he wasn't entitled to do.

"I rang up their chairman. He said Aaron had told them he was a free agent. It's the player's fault, not the club's. I don't want to see them lose points, but he was still our player.

"He didn't play against us because this all came to light the week before."

Mansfield Town has not commented officially on the investigation recently, but new owners Andy Perry, Andy Saunders and Steve Middleton are known to be vigorously defending any claioms of wrongdoing.

The investigation is the second problem for the Stags regarding player signings/registrations. Earlier in the season the club was docked four points by the Conference over a separate matter.

• Stags suffer four point deduction over 4 ineligible players

BSP bosses did not receive a fax from Field Mill containing the registrations details of four new players on the Friday afternoon before the season kicked off.

The four points equated to the points gained in the first two matches covered by the Conference charge - the 2-2 draw at Ebbsfleet and home win over Histon.

The 'missing' registrations were then received by post, it is believed.

The Conference deducted the Stags four points for the irregularities and also imposed a relatively small fine of £1,000 - way below the maximum available - after the club admitted six charges.

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