Shels hoping for one of the big guns in UEFA draw

SHELBOURNE hope to be paired with one of the most attractive clubs in the UEFA Cup when the draw for the first round is made in Monaco tomorrow.

Chairman Finbarr Flood said a first leg home tie against a club like Newcastle United, Feyenoord or Stuttgart would serve Shelbourne well as they chase the financial return they believe they deserve from the run in Europe.

Shels expect to gross €400,000 profit from their Champions’ League qualifiers and that will provide them with welcome relief from their accumulated club debt of €750,000.

Two matches in the UEFA Cup against one of the top sides could see the club back in the black and provide the platform for further development of their plan to make it to the lucrative stages of the Champions’ League.

Mr Flood reviewed their experiences after Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat by Deportivo and said the club face a dilemma: would they like a big club or a lesser one?

“My gut feeling is that I would prefer to get one of the big names like Newcastle, Roma or Atletico Madrid because you could get a smaller one and still go out,” he said. “If we do reach the group stages of the UEFA Cup the money would not be as big as in the Champions’ League, but we will take what we can get and if we did have three or four games they would certainly provide invaluable experience for the players.”

Forty clubs will be in the first round draw for the UEFA Cup. Half of them will be eliminated after two-legged matches and the remaining 20 will be divided into four groups of five. Each team will then play a total of four matches (two away from home and two at home). Winners will be joined by losers of the third qualifying round of the Champions’ League.

Shels deserved congratulations for their performance, for the energy and tactical approach and the planning that kept Deportivo scoreless over the first leg in Dublin and for 60 minutes of the second. However, they spoiled their evening with indiscipline in the closing half-hour.

Manager Pat Fenlon was sent from the touchline for arguing with the referee in the 75th minute and Alan Moore received a second yellow card and was sent off in the 89th minute.

If you count Moore’s two yellow cards then Shelbourne were shown a total of five in the course of the game - Wesley Hoolahan, Stuart Byrne and David Crawley were also booked. The club is likely to be fined by UEFA because of this. Moore will miss the first of their UEFA Cup ties and Stuart Byrne, who accumulated three yellow cards in the course of their campaign, faces suspension.

Manager Fenlon was unrepentant: “I was trying to point out that Valeron was diving all night and Irureta was ranting and raving all night and there was nothing done to him. If I am banned for a few games we will deal with it when it happens.”

The manager was entitled to his view but the bottom line is that Shelbourne will be weakened in the UEFA Cup and unnecessarily so. An objective assessment of the situation suggests that while a more professional approach is certainly evident in Shels’ approach, Irish clubs must learn to deal with continental opponents ducking and diving and maintain their cool. Arguing with officials might be occasionally tolerated in domestic football, but it is self-destructive on the international stage.