DUNDALK WILL PLAY the home leg of their Champions League play-off at the Aviva Stadium, it has been confirmed.
The Louth club made history by defeating BATE Borisov in the third qualifying round to guarantee at least eight more matches in Europe this season and secure a windfall of €5.4 million.
Stephen Kenny’s men are just one round away from making the group stages of the continent’s elite club competition, but defeat later this month will see them play in the Europa League group stages.
At 11am tomorrow morning, the Lilywhites discover which of Viktoria Plzen, Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic, APOEL Nicosia and Legia Warsaw they will face when the draw is made.
Having played at Tallaght Stadium this week as Oriel Park does not meet Uefa requirements, Kenny spoke of a desire to play the upcoming tie at the Aviva Stadium.
And a statement released this evening has confirmed Ireland’s international ground as the venue for Dundalk’s next European game at home — which will be played on either 16/17/23/24 August.
“We’re delighted that our next game will be at the Aviva Stadium.” said Kenny. “The players want to play on the biggest stage and in the national stadium. What we dream of in this League to play in the Aviva Stadium and to have it full – that does not happen very often.
We experienced playing there with the FAI Cup final last year so it is great to get to play in the Aviva Stadium again. We are very appreciative of the FAI’s help in that regard.”
The FAI will also provide administrational and operational assistance in the running of the game at no cost and Kenny added:
“The flexibility that the FAI have showed around League fixtures amongst the four clubs involved in Europe has helped the players recover adequately and that is important strategically when trying to reach your optimum level.
“Ger Dunne and his video analysis team, who have worked closely with our assistant manager, Vinny Perth, have helped us to prepare for our two previous opponents BATE Borisov and FH.”
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sell the tickets cheap to attract fans , fill the ground,make an atmosphere,
Like the FAI actually care about football.
What if they draw Celtic and 45,000 Celtic fans turn up?
Hopefully they sell tickets cheap to sell it out
LOI fans and other Irish football fans come to this and show your support. Dundalk can’t do it on their own so we must help them and make a good atmosphere in the Aviva to show the world how good Irish football is and show our own Irish fans that don’t support LOI yet that it is a strong league and they should support a club. C’mon Dundalk from a Limerick fan.
Legia Warsaw or celtic will fill the aviva,I’ll be one of the few celtic fans hoping to avoid dundalk.as an irish man I’d definitely rather see dundalk get to group stages even at celtic’s expense.
Are you A Scotsman then?
Even as City fan I’m most certainly going to go up and pledge my support to Dundalk if I can!
Exciting times for Dundalk. Would be great see them play alongside Europe’s elite!
What portion of the ticket sales will they get?
Love the way everyone is getting behind Dundalk on this. I really hope they do it. Best of luck from a Wexford Youths fan.
While the League of Ireland is getting some due attention, I might highjack this comment section to throw an idea out there which I think would be interesting. I was drinking with a friend who works in marketing, and has himself participated at a decent level in a high performance semi-pro sport, when we started talking about the idea of an Irish Provincial soccer competition.
Divide the country’s LoI teams into four groups: Dublin, Midlands, Munster, North-West. At the end of each season, have a small cup competition with home & away semis and a neutral venue for the final. Gear marketing towards families, with cheap ticketing for kids. Discounts for season ticket holders with LoI clubs.
Dublin: Shamrock Rovers, Bohs, St. Pat’s, UCD, Shels, Cabinteely
Midlands: Dundalk, Bray, Wexford, Longford, Drogheda, Athlone
Munster: Cork, Limerick, Cobh, Waterford
North-West: Derry, Galway, Sligo, Finn Harps
Rules:
-Each team has a 23 man squad, which must include at least one player from each club to ensure all fans can feel they have a stake in the team. The captain must come from the club that finished highest in the most recently completed season.
-Each team can invite one player from outside the league to their team, provided they both a) have played in a senior LoI match, b) are from the area they are being asked to represent. Eg., Shane Long would be eligible only for Munster, Coleman only for North-West, Robbie Keane for no one because of rule a. This would insentivise any young player interested in taking part in this competition to either stick around our league until he has played at senior level or seek a loan to the league like Eoghan O’Connell did recently. Having guest players like this would also hammer home to casual fans just how much the league has given us. Realistically, I understand getting actual top quality players straight away would be near impossible, with issues around release from clubs, but surely a Kevin Doyle, Shay Given or David Forde could be persuaded to take part. From small acorns and all that. This would also have the effect of getting LoI lads into the same dressing room as someone coming from a high performance environment, which could cause a trickle down effect of good practices.
-Have the manager of each province changed regularly, and not be a manager active in the league. Maybe use an Ireland assistant coach like Steve Guppy, an under-age coaching figure like Noel King or even a well-known television pundit or ex-player like Cunningham/Sadlier. Leave managerial appointments entirely to the teams and exclude the FAI. They are simply far too adept at burning bridges to be anything but a hindrance in this process. For example, Brian Kerr would be totally off limits if they were involved. Appoint managers well ahead of time, so they have a chance to actually watch players from the teams in action. Seeing the managers in the crowds at the occasional game is, again, a good way of generating talk about it. The announcement of appointments could be staggered which would help keep a consistent buzz of information going.
-Have them wear similar jersies gotten though a single kit deal, with a single sponsorship and kit maker, like New Zealand Super Rugby had until recently in order which would make sure each province would get money through the deal (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8c/ef/d6/8cefd6f30953385c0ef26c4d082b83dc.jpg)
-Only a Premier Division team can serve as host of the home semi-final (provided the province has one), and each province’s “home” stadium must be changed every year (if the province has only one Premier Division team, they can decide what to do themselves)
-Gate for the home semi-final match is split evenly between all clubs in that province. If you can’t get people in through the turnstile, tough. It’s up to you to try harder to get a big name guest player or manager.
-Semi-final opponents are rotated every year, in the same way they were in the pre-qualifier Gaelic football Championships
-Final venue is decided only after the finalists are known and placed in a venue most reasonably accessible to all fans, eg. Galway for a Munster vs. North-West final, Athlone for a Midlands vs. North-West, etc.
–Give the final venue two or three weeks to prepare for match
–Second gets 1/2 of gate, winner gets 1/2 of gate + some prize money raised through sponsorship, with the money again distributed evenly between the province’s constituent teams
–OR, a neat I was thinking was if Ireland qualify for a major tournament, the final of this would be a curtain raiser at one of the pre-tournament friendlies
Realistically, in order for this to work, clubs would have to agree to release their players to the provincial team without complaint. Maybe it could be written into revised terms for getting a League license?
All in all though, this would in my opinion be a good way to tap into the tribalism that drives much of Irish sport, be it rugby or GAA, which the LoI is often accused of not capitalising on. It would also serve as a window shop of the league to a wider audience of supporters, a sort of “here are our very best in action” with some additional bells and whistles to generate the initial interest. Supporting a team for an entire domestic league season may be a daunting prospect for some, but supporting a team for two or three games isn’t exactly that much of a slog. Also, through watching at least 10 men who play LoI play for your provincial team, people could gradually begin to recognise and know the names of LoI players in a way that simply doesn’t happen now. It’s hard to sell a league to people without faces they know, and people who don’t follow the league can usually only name maybe 3 or 4 players, and that’s usually through them being linked with transfers to England. Watching just one match would introduce you to 20 players, while if marketing was done right, the names of the captains would be seared into your head. With captains changing regularly, you’d find people learning plenty of names. Even in Connacht rugby’s dark days in the 2000s, when I knew nothing about the team, I knew who Andrew Farley, John Fogarty and John Muldoon were, because the Celtic League always had big press events with captains of all teams present.
I don’t know when it would be played. Having it before the league starts in spring or after the league ends in winter would clash with attempts to draw in “guest players”, but holding it in summer could be a bit close to the European ties for comfort. You can debate that for yourself.
There are probably league purists who think I’ve violated some sacrilege eg. putting Shamrock Rovers and Bohs on the same team, but overall I don’t think it’s a terrible idea. It would require a fair bit of organisation to pull it off well though.
Wtf was that?
It was a rant really. I wrote most of it to pass the time while I had to take a trans-Atlantic flight on my own for work. I need to just get Solataire on my laptop.
How many pints did ye have?
Well he’s from Galway and I was there because Connacht were playing Glasgow in the Pro12 semis, so… lots.
I was rooting for you but you lost me when you said Wexford was in the midlands. Sunny southeast buddy! Good effort though :)
Maybe rename that team Leinster so?
Some conversations are best left in the pub. Having said that… Admire your effort being arsed typing that!
I think you should put some more thought into it
@Boots: There isn’t really much to admire. I just find it hard to sleep on planes.
While I admire the effort you put into writing that, it would never be a runner for me. Rivalry is cornerstone upon which the LOI is built upon. A Munster or Dublin soccer team is superficial at best and down right insulting at worst (I know this wasn’t your intention). I couldn’t see Limerick fans cheering on a team containing Waterford & Cork lads. Nor would Rovers fans cheer on any team featuring Bohs or Shels players.
I’ve stopped reading , finger sore from the scrolling up
@Colm: The idea isn’t really geared at getting people who already like the league on board. It’s about providing people from somewhere like Offaly, Tipperary or Roscommon with a reason to get interested in the players and the league.
I’m always hearing people give out that teams aren’t just done by county, or by province, but I think it would be stupid to shaft the fans that already follow these clubs, just in the hopes of gaining the favour of people who can provide no strong evidence they’d actually be willing to follow these new teams should they be created. I just thought, why not do a bit of both?
And who knows, maybe supporting a Dublin team might make the Rovers and Bohs fans less inclined to kick the sh*te out of each other at their next match.
Cocaine is one hell of a drug….
any dates confirmed at all? or is that after the draw?
16th and 17th or 23rd and 24th all comes down to the draw but it will be around then
It’d be great if they played Celtic
And when they qualify as well or just for the for the last 16?
Eh read the news
Joke jesus
where can I buy tickets for the game?