"At the end of the day, we have not changed any rules. What we have done is changed our ruling ... after finding further information which was known but not submitted," Kemp said, adding NZ Football confirmed Kaltack's eligibility based on "half facts" in an "incomplete" submission from Wairarapa.
Wairarapa beat Rovers 2-1 at Park Island, Napier, on June 16 although the Bill Robertson-captained Blues should have buried the game had it not been for the deft skills of visiting goalkeeper Matt Borren.
Teams can field a maximum of three guest players - generally defined as non-New Zealand citizens or residents who have not lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months.
Wairarapa applied to have Vanuatu international Kaltack reclassified in time for the cup campaign and NZ Football granted the request based on the evidence the club provided but it had since surfaced the defender was outside the country when the application was made.
He returned to New Zealand on June 14, two days before the ASB Chatham Cup match and two days after Wairarapa's submission to re-classify him.
Kaltack played for Solomon Warriors in the O-League in summer without proper registration, according to NZ Football, with Wairarapa failing to obtain an international transfer certificate for the teenager to play in Vanuatu, something that would have alerted New Zealand parties to his ineligibility to be reclassified as a guest player.
Kemp also clarified yesterday it didn't matter whether Kaltack came off the bench in the last few minutes because any team entering an ineligible player on their card were culpable, regardless of whether they run on to the park or not.
Wairarapa coach Phil Keinzley told the media on Monday night they were intending to lodge an appeal before the allotted seven-day window expires next Monday.
As of last night Kemp said NZ Football had not received anything from the club.
"We are confident that we have taken the right action in terms of the original protest against Wairarapa but we defend the club's right to appeal and our appeals committee will hear their case when lodged, irrespective of what happens on the field this Saturday."
Even if Keinzley, through his "specialist sports solicitor", lodges the appeal before the weekend and it is considered under urgency the process would leave little time to arrange the cup match and reschedule local league matches.
"At this stage of the season, having already experienced unprecedented disruptions to weather, we feel it is the best interest of the ASB Chatham Cup to forge ahead and deal with the appeal as a separate process," Kemp said.
Palmy Marist coach Simon Lees was delighted last night the game was going ahead because it was the green-and-white brigade's club day.
"We're not the size of Napier City Rovers as a club so it's quite a big thing for us," Lees said, adding both Skoglund Park and Memorial Park are their home grounds but they opted for the former because it's more accessible.
Keinzley told Time Age yesterday what irked him most was NZ Football writing to Wairarapa days before the Napier game to say Kaltack was in the clear.
"We knew he [Kaltack] could not play for us as a guest player because we already had the maximum three players in that category but, because he had actually joined up with us the previous season, we thought he could be okay," he said.
"We didn't hide anything. We made it clear that he had gone back home to play for the national team and we wanted to know whether that meant he needed to be reclassified.
"So when NZF came back and said everything was good we took it as gospel. We had no reason to think otherwise, did we?
"Quite frankly it looks like NZF made a stuff-up and now we are paying for it."
PN Marist v Rovers
Chatham Cup, Rd 4
