FAI Cup / European qualification

**Angus** · 23/10/2007, 12:10 PM

Anybody know the full story with Euro qualification ?

Say we beat Longford on Sunday for the sake of discussion and lose the cup final to Cork / Bohs and let's say Cork / Bohs have already qualified for Europe via the league - who gets the third European place ?

Is there a third European place ?

**Schumi** · 23/10/2007, 12:17 PM

Third Euro place goes to the league. Cup runners up, other than Pats, only get into Europe if someone does the double.

**Dodge** · 23/10/2007, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by Schumi

Third Euro place goes to the league. Cup runners up only get into Europe if someone does the double.

technicalities aside, obviously

**Schumi** · 23/10/2007, 1:01 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

technicalities aside, obviously

True, I've edited the previous post now.

**Stato** · 23/10/2007, 1:15 PM

Originally Posted by Angus

Anybody know the full story with Euro qualification ?

Say we beat Longford on Sunday for the sake of discussion and lose the cup final to Cork / Bohs and let's say Cork / Bohs have already qualified for Europe via the league - who gets the third European place ?

Is there a third European place ?

Okay, the definitive answer (yet again!):

The four european spots and their associated qualifying competitions are as follows (ranked in order):
(1) Champions League (League)
(2) UEFA Cup (FAI Cup) - essentially the old Cup Winners Cup spot
(3) UEFA Cup (League)
(4) Inter-Toto Cup (League)

A team that qualifies for two spots takes the highest ranking of the two spots while the lower ranking spot moves to the next best team in the QUALIFYING competition for that spot.

Therefore:

A team that does the double qualifies for spots 1 and 2. They take spot 1 while spot 2 goes to the runner's up in the FAI Cup.

A team that wins the FAI Cup and finishes second in the league qualifies for spots 2 and 3. They take spot 2 and their number 3 spot moves to the third placed team in the league.

Clear?

And before you ask, what happened last year was that Shelbourne failed to obtain the necessary licence to compete in Europe so all the teams in the league effectively moved up one spot when working out the their respective positions for European competitions and therefore Derry were effectively treated as double winners.