UEFA DRAWS: National League champions Shelbourne have been seeded for the draw for the first round of the UEFA Champions League which takes place in Geneva at lunchtime today.
Shelbourne will be paired with one of 10 clubs: Hibernians (Malta), Barry Town (Wales), Flora Tallinn (Estonia), Pyunk Yerevan (Armenia), Zeljesnicar Sarajevo (Bosnia), Portadown (Northern Ireland), B36 Torshavn (Faroe Islands), Dinamo Tirana (Albania), F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg) and the entry from Azerbaijan where a dispute has been ongoing. The first-round matches will take place on July 17th and 24th.
Should Shelbourne progress, they will meet one of 14 seeded clubs which include the likes of Sparta Prague, Boavista, Brondby IF, Sturm Graz, Maccabi Haifa and Partizan Belgrade in the second round, the draw for which will also be made today.
The second -round matches take place on July 31st and August 7th.
The draw for the third qualifying round takes place on July 26th and includes Manchester United, Newcastle United, Celtic, Barcelona and Inter Milan.
Meanwhile, Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk won't relish meeting any of their possible opponents in their UEFA Cup qualifiers, the draw for which also takes place in Geneva today. Both are one of four unseeded teams in separate eight-team groups of the draw.
National League runners-up Shamrock Rovers have a 50 per cent chance of a trip to the far side of Europe as CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria and Georgian side Dinamo Tbilisi are possible opponents along with Servette FC of Switzerland and Swedish side Djurgardens IF.
Dundalk's quartet of possible opponents looks just as daunting. Martin Murray's FAI Cup winners will meet either Aberdeen, shocked by Bohemians in the same competition two years ago, NK Varteks of Croatia, AIK Stockholm of Sweden or Finnish side HJK Helsinki. The games are to be played on August 15th and 29th.
