Shelbourne and Linfield rematch shows why Champions League remains pipe dream
Can you imagine what it would be like for Irish football if…
'Every child in Ireland played at least one hour of football every single week?
'We had teams that were in the final stages of every major tournament?
'We had a League of Ireland club regularly competing in the Uefa Champions League?'
As it stands, getting a League of Ireland club as far as the Champions League play-off round on a regular basis would be an incredible feat.
Shelbourne will come up against Linfield for the second time in this season's European campaign in the first leg of their Uefa Conference League play-off.
Their All Ireland derby kicked things off in the first round of the Champions League qualifiers on 9 July and the nature of the systems means both have been afforded routes towards redemption.
Of the 28 teams who took part in that opening round of Champions League qualifying, only one remains in with a chance of reaching the league phase.
Azerbaijani champions Kairat face Celtic in Glasgow tomorrow night while Shkendija of North Macedonia and Bulgaria's Ludogorets both made it as far as the third qualifying round before dropping into the Europa League play-off stage where they were drawn against each other.
Shels could have joined them there had they not conceded a dramatic injury-time goal to Croatian champions Rijeka in their Europa League third round qualifier.
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In a snakes and ladders process, the ultimate prize of Champions League football for smaller nations has never been further away, yet the introduction of the third tier Conference League has acted as more than just a consolation prize.
Linfield's hopes in European competition remained alive after losing to Shels last month because they avail of the champions' path that saw them parachute into the Conference League.
David Healy's side edged out Zalgiris of Lithuania before also seeing off Vikingur from the Faroe Islands 3-2 on aggregate.
The Conference League play-off round now acts as a sort of reunion for those champions in what are effectively European outposts.
Shels and Linfield meet tonight, of course, while RFS (Latvia) Hamrun Spartans (Malta) Drita (Kosovo), Breidablik (Iceland), Differdange, (Luxembourg) Noah (Armenia), Virtus (San Marino), and Ljubljana (Slovenia) all started off with that ultimate ambition of Champions League progress before ending up here.
The creation of the Conference League by Uefa has been a tremendous success for clubs, even if last season's winners Chelsea not only skewed the competition but also skewered their opponents given their vastly superior resources.
The Premier League giants earned €21.8 million in total prize money while Shamrock Rovers pocketed €7.2m for reaching the knockout rounds.
For context, Chelsea's automatic qualification for the Champions League after finishing fourth in the Premier League last season means they will collect €18.6m just for taking part with a further €2m per win and €700,000 for a draw.
With 29 teams in the expanded 36-team format already automatically qualified for the Champions League it's a further indication of how the qualifying rounds are a brutal means of natural selection.
Even Rovers making it as far as the Conference League play-off having not benefitted from the champions' path is a testimony to their own European pedigree.
They arrive in the Azores to face Santa Clara – fifth in last season's Portuguese top flight – tomorrow night with the tantalising prospect of two League of Ireland clubs competing in the league phase of European competition for the first time ever.
All of which begs the question…
Can you imagine?
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