A FIVE-star luxury resort in Portugal expelled two Dublin football teams from its sports facilities earlier this month because of rowdy behaviour.

Shangan Athletic from Ballymun and Sheriff YC from the inner city were both sent home early from a dream trip to the luxury Oceanico resort in the Algarve after management decided their conduct was no longer acceptable.

The teams were due to play each other in a match abroad as a prize for winning their individual leagues, Athletic Union League (AUL) Premier A and Premier B last season.

But before the fixture earlier this month, both sides were asked to leave the resort following complaints from guests and concerns that something more serious could happen.

"The first team Shangan left on the Thursday and Sheriff left on the Friday," an Oceanico spokeswoman told the Sunday Tribune. "We asked them to leave because they weren't behaving themselves. They were just being very disruptive around the resort, coming back in the early hours of the morning.

"We can't be seen to be tolerating rowdy drunken guys coming back at three or four in the morning, or being drunk around the resort so we had to ask them to leave. They were very loud. It wasn't one specific incident, it was just that they weren't behaving themselves.

"This is a five-star resort and we have guests. We expect people to behave. They were very rowdy, that was the main thing."

The Oceanico resort has strong Irish connections. Former Ireland footballer Niall Quinn owns a property there and brought his Sunderland club over for pre-season training.

One of the two golf courses is designed by the legendary Christy O'Connor Jnr and John Aldridge recently arrived to launch its state-of-the-art sporting facilities.

Neither of the two clubs or the AUL would comment on the incident, although a source close to one club said there were serious concerns that the negative publicity would only undermine the work done in the community.

The resort spokeswoman said management would have to give serious consideration to the idea of rehosting such an event but ruled out the same clubs returning.

"I would probably say that at the end of the day we are a resort and we want football teams to come here and do their training so we would have to look at teams and look into it," she said. "I would say not the same teams (again). I think we have learned our lesson there. It was two teams and it wasn't all of them, it was just a few of them. A few of the guys were really sorry for any problems they caused. But they came as a team and they left as a team."