League of Ireland in Europe 2017

[El-Pietro]

I'd say Cork's first round draw last year was more than relatively lucky, you didn't have to leave the Island and up against a side barely back in pre season training !

Still I think they gave you a fair old game in TC?
To quote the current Shamrock Rovers manager we battered them. Their keeper (Roy Carroll) had an incredible game. Could have been 10-1. Actually he was really good in both games, but especially in Cork.

[brendy_éire]

IL is dream first round draw really.
Crusaders are in there this year seeded. Coleraine are unseeded, and the playoff winner (Glenavon or Ballymena) will likely be unseeded too.
Cheap to get to and very winnable, it's what you want.

[El-Pietro]

IL is dream first round draw really.
Crusaders are in there this year seeded. Coleraine are unseeded, and the playoff winner (Glenavon or Ballymena) will likely be unseeded too.
Cheap to get to and very winnable, it's what you want.
But it doesn't feel like a European trip. Linfield was the least fun trip we had last summer, though it did enable us to play in Sweden which was brilliant. I suppose if you can guarantee the win (which you probably can 90% of the time) then its fine because you get the second round.

[geysir]

IL is dream first round draw really.
Crusaders are in there this year seeded. Coleraine are unseeded, and the playoff winner (Glenavon or Ballymena) will likely be unseeded too.
Cheap to get to and very winnable, it's what you want.
It's a gift of a draw.
Means a club can bank most of the Eur215k participation fee and has a virtually guaranteed appearance in the draw for the next round.

[oriel]

Speaking of money

http://www.the42.ie/dundalk-europa-league-winnings-money-2-3381067-May2017/

Nice incentive for Cork next season now !

[Pablo Escobar]

Speaking of money

http://www.the42.ie/dundalk-europa-league-winnings-money-2-3381067-May2017/

Nice incentive for Cork next season now !
Dundalk have a receivable that they owe to somebody and are booking it as an asset? Has Kenny been up to his old tricks again? :D

[geysir]

Dundalk were better off in the years when they were poor, it was a healthy kind of poverty where every man had the moral courage to take the responsibility to improve the situation.

[geysir]

Dundalk have a receivable that they owe to somebody and are booking it as an asset? Has Kenny been up to his old tricks again? :D
Cork people are so genuinely generous, you borrow money from them and they think they owe you?

[Charlie Darwin]

Cork people are so genuinely generous, you borrow money from them and they think they owe you.
When somebody (a dirty Dub no doubt) robs a bank in Cork people will let him run free rather than tackle him to the ground and risk giving away a free kick.

[patrickccfc]

When somebody (a dirty Dub no doubt) robs a bank in Cork people will let him run free rather than tackle him to the ground and risk giving away a free kick.

People that rob banks generally carry a gun so I wouldn't be tackling them, but I see your point. We do have remarkable discipline down here

[pineapple stu]

Chelsea win the U-18 Premier League title, so that's now 2 of 8 for UCD.

Anderlecht will make it 3 if they win away to second-place Club Brugge this weekend, though that's obviously far from a certainty.

But tis panning out well for us so far.

[Bawnville Hoop]

FAO Derry/Cork/Rovers fans, I done an update on next months draw. It would also apply to Cork and Derry.


Quick update on our draw.

Most leagues have finished at this stage but there are still some teams to be confirmed due to cup finals. Aberdeen will be parachuted to Round 2 as United or Ajax will leave a vacant group stage spot causing every teams to move up a place.

Although Uefa dont officially 'Region' teams they have done so to a certain extent still. Here's the latest prediction of teams we can face.

Lyngby BK Den
FC Midtjylland Den
FC Levadia Tallinn Est
Nõmme Kalju Est
HJK Fin
KR Ice
Stjarnan Ice
FK Haugesund Nor
Odds BK Nor
FK Ventspils Lat
Crusaders N.Ire
Rangers Sco
St. Johnstone Sco
IFK Norrköping Swe
AIK Stockholm Swe

There are two Luxembourg teams who are currently unseeded but could become seeded if results go in their favour in other leagues.

Could be seeded:
FC Differdange 03
CS Fola Esch

If we also were to draw any of the below teams in the first round and beat them we will be seeded in the second round!*

Seeded in region:
FC Midtjylland Den
HJK Fin
FK Ventspils Lat
Odds BK Nor
St. Johnstone Sco
AIK Stockholm Swe

Updated Excel of the latest seeding status for the europa league, it's updated daily and accurate: https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?...AEY2-peVXk6VaI (https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=4FE4712A1E3EA4FA!276&ithint=file%2cxlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AAEY2-peVXk6VaI)

*You take your opponents seeding if you beat them.

[El-Pietro]

Kazakh and Belorussian teams generally get included in the "North". I don't see any Polish teams in your list either.

[Bawnville Hoop]

Kazakh and Belorussian teams generally get included in the "North". I don't see any Polish teams in your list either.

Good example of why we don't come on here :D

[El-Pietro]

Good example of why we don't come on here :D

I don't understand your point? You've left out several potential opponents for some reason. I thought perhaps you'd left them out by mistake so I pointed that out.

[brendy_éire]

Kazakh and Belorussian teams generally get included in the "North". I don't see any Polish teams in your list either.

Belarus are now generally 'northern'.
It's worth noting that regionalisation isn't guaranteed either. There's no actual rules (at least public ones) regarding it. In the past five years, four have been regionalised, 2015-16 wasn't. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying_phas e_and_play-off_round#First_qualifying_round
Apparently UEFA make a decision on regionalisation the night before the draw.

[El-Pietro]

Belarus are now generally 'northern'.
It's worth noting that regionalisation isn't guaranteed either. There's no actual rules (at least public ones) regarding it. In the past five years, four have been regionalised, 2015-16 wasn't. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying_phas e_and_play-off_round#First_qualifying_round
Apparently UEFA make a decision on regionalisation the night before the draw.
Yeah i had a banger the morning of the 2015 draw when we were grouped with Inter Baku - though the rest of our teams were all Northern, ended up embarrassing ourselves in Iceland.

They don't make it easy for fans at all.

[sparky12345678]

just to point out that Dundalk's seeding is currently missing out on being seeded by 0.011. Had one more seeded team missed out... goes to show...had they managed one more draw at any point....

[pineapple stu]

Probably another team would effect that?

If UCD had held on against Slovan for five more minutes, would Dundalk be seeded?

[sbgawa]

Can't see anyway rovers would be seeded they are miles off

[El-Pietro]

Probably another team would effect that?

If UCD had held on against Slovan for five more minutes, would Dundalk be seeded?Or if we had finished the job against KR!

[sparky12345678]

in fact yes.
Had any other irish club taken another 0.5 (from a draw or win) last season it would add 0.1 to Dundalk's final co-efficient bumping it above two more teams... from 5.815 to 5.915 just below FH who are 6.175.

In that case we would be watching the leagues in Poland, Hungary and Moldova who usually would supply a seeded team but all three of which might just produce an unseeded team this year...

[seand]

I think what we're all trying to say is that it's just the rest of yis being useless that's holding Dundalk back in Europe. ;-)

After taking 3 ranking points from our first two games in the group I said I'd be happy with one more point. The narrow failure to pick up another point (and we lost all 4 games by a single goal) could well hit us hard this season

[El-Pietro]

I think what we're all trying to say is that it's just the rest of yis being useless that's holding Dundalk back in Europe. ;-)

After taking 3 ranking points from our first two games in the group I said I'd be happy with one more point. The narrow failure to pick up another point (and we lost all 4 games by a single goal) could well hit us hard this season
My friends and I are taking this as the silver lining to losing in Iceland. Dundalk have literally lost more than we have as a result of... that result....

What you should take from this is that we haven't gotten over that performance.

[pineapple stu]

Dortmund v Bayern is the German underage final - Dortmund could drop down to fourth in the Bundesliga on the final day, but you'd imagine they should still make it through the qualifiers.

So that's 3/8 in the bag already. This is starting to look quite good for UCD.

[pineapple stu]

Anderlecht win the Belgian league, having already won the underage league - so that's 4/8 required. The same number of automatic qualifiers there were this year, when Cork qualified.

Worth noting that the worst-case scenario in Germany is that Dortmund win the underage league and drop to fourth on the final day and have to go through the qualifiers. I think they'll almost certainly win, but there is the issue of Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull Leipzig both being in the CL. I'm told RB Leipzig may be ineligible for Europe (contravening rules on common team ownership) as priority would go to a league winner. So that would have Dortmund in the CL proper anyway.

[sidewayspasser]

Technically, Red Bull's influence in Salzburg has been scaled back in the last two years, so that they are officially no longer owner, but only sponsor. That was done to address this exact problem. Now whether UEFA buys this argument or not remains to be seen.

[sidewayspasser]

Dortmund secure 3rd place. That's another one in favour of UCD.

[pineapple stu]

Well, I'd been counting it already in the 4/8. But nice to have it confirmed.

Ajax won the Dutch underage league as well - so touch wood they do the business on Wednesday now! But they're in the CL play-offs at worst.

Currently, Ajax, Dinamo Kiev, APOEL Nicosia, Qarabag and Ludogorets have won their underage league and will be in the CL qualifiers. Sporting and Celtic are almost certain to join them; Red Bull Salzburg should do the double as well. Copenhagen might - they're a goal off top - and FC Basel have topped the Swiss underage league heading into the play-offs. Then there's Olympiakos and Viitorul Constanta in the Greek and Romanian underage league finals, Legia Warsaw top of both senior and underage leagues, Monaco in the French semis, Juve and Roma in the Italian play-offs (along with 11 other teams!) and, for good measure, Zeljeznicar and Vardar Skopje have done the double, so if there's to be an outsider qualifying, they're the ones we want.

Bottom line - if any four of those teams qualify for the CL, we're back in Europe.

[geysir]

just to point out that Dundalk's seeding is currently missing out on being seeded by 0.011. Had one more seeded team missed out... goes to show...had they managed one more draw at any point....
According to Bert's site, (https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2017.html) at best Dundalk could be the nr 2 unseeded team, losing out by .035 ranking points.
3 east Europe leagues went to the wire this weekend, with unseeded and seeded teams all equal on points in each of the 3 leagues.
After the weekend's games, the Albanian champions are CL unseeded, both the Hungary and Moldovan leagues go to a play-off between 2 teams equal on points in each.
If both seeded teams win the play offs, the cut off is - 8.650
One seeded team winning - 6.175
No seeded team winning - 5.850
Dundalk are on 5.815

Poland's league is still in the balance, 7 games to go, if the unseeded team hangs on to win, it wouldn't change anything for Dundalk, except that they would be the nr 1 unseeded team.

[holidaysong]

Having more unseeded champions would be better in terms of bumping some of the weaker champions into the seeded group like FH and Zalgiris.

[geysir]

Honved won the Hungarian league play off and they're CL unseeded
That means FH are seeded and in theory could possibly meet Dundalk again.

[sparky12345678]

FH, Žilnia and Žalgris are more or less at Dundalk's level at least seeding-wise.
Anything above that i imagine is dodgier...
They lost on aggregate in the EL to an Israeli team. Other Irish clubs have experience with Malmo and Rosenburg...so not completely out of the question? Qarabag and Astana are horrible away trips. Ranked according to seedings, I'd imagine Maribor and above take this stage quite seriously and wont underestimate Dundalk like BATE did previously.

Imo Rijeka and Partizan would be great away trips (ryanair flies to Pula 1,5-2 hours from rijeka) and might be caught off guard a little...

[nigel-harps1954]

I don't think anyone will be underestimating Dundalk after last season.

[Yossarian]

I don't think anyone will be underestimating Dundalk after last season.

Unfortunately they'll have little to fear from us this season.

[geysir]

FH, Žilnia and Žalgris are more or less at Dundalk's level at least seeding-wise.
Anything above that i imagine is dodgier...
They lost on aggregate in the EL to an Israeli team. Other Irish clubs have experience with Malmo and Rosenburg...so not completely out of the question? Qarabag and Astana are horrible away trips. Ranked according to seedings, I'd imagine Maribor and above take this stage quite seriously and wont underestimate Dundalk like BATE did previously.

Imo Rijeka and Partizan would be great away trips (ryanair flies to Pula 1,5-2 hours from rijeka) and might be caught off guard a little... Maybe Bate didn't take Dundalk that serious in the first leg in 2015
but judging how they approached the 2016 first leg, they took Dundalk very seriously.

[Straightstory]

So, Sean Maguire off to Preston at the end of July. How many games could he play for Cork in Europa League before that?

[legendz]

The likes of Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid want the Champions League reduced to 24 teams without affecting their allocation. The Champions League could be closed off entirely from the reach of lower ranked leagues in 4 years time.

It's a pity to hear of Cork losing one or two players. I'm sure privately, without putting public pressure on themselves, the Cork management will be looking for another run to ELQ3 and another shot at making the playoffs.

[DannyInvincible]

So, Sean Maguire off to Preston at the end of July. How many games could he play for Cork in Europa League before that?

He'll be available for two full rounds as well as the first leg of the third round, if Cork progress to that stage.

[brendy_éire]

Here's all the unseeded northern teams in the EL first round.

Midtjylland
Dinamo Minsk
Lech Poznań
HJK
AIK
Shakhtyor Soligorsk
St Johnstone
Ventspils
Odd
KR
IFK Norrköping
Lyngby
Nõmme Kalju
Jagiellonia Białystok
Stjarnan
Haugesund
Levadia Tallinn
Crusaders
Rangers

That's 19 seeded teams, 23 unseeded (I think), so plenty of room for an oul Kazahk, Armenian, etc. team to get shifted into northern Europe.

[PartySaint]

One of the Irish sides are definitely going to get Rangers

[placid casual]

and my guess is it will be Rovers:D

[Dalymountrower]

and my guess is it will be Rovers:D

`Mon the Gers.

[placid casual]

Boez,linfield, rangers..:)

[sbgawa]

Can't decide if I would like to draw rangers or not.
There are weaker teams which you could draw to give you a better chance of progression but then the sheer joy of potentially knocking them out ............

[sbgawa]

ah c'mon Dalymountrower even I would cheer for Bohs against that lot

[El-Pietro]

By that lot I assume you mean Rangers? Why? Why are Rangers remotely relevant? Just another European team, as are their rivals. I honestly couldn't care how they do in that league, no more than I care about the Dutch or Belgian leagues. I was going to say I wouldn't cross the street to watch them but thats not true, if I was in their town I'd go along to a game same as I would in any country.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

They are just a little bit anti-Irish.....

[Straightstory]

Tribalism alive and well...

[nigel-harps1954]

They are just a little bit anti-Irish.....

So are quite a lot of British football clubs.