UEFA boost Bohs’ status

BOHEMIANS yesterday welcomed the confirmation from UEFA that their results in Europe over the past three seasons earned them improved status as one of the seeded teams for next season’s Champions’ League qualifying ties.

The news came as a huge bonus on top of their proud achievement of winning the Eircom League Championship for the second times in three years and puts them in line for a potential financial bonanza from Europe.

“This is tremendous news” was the delighted reaction of manager Stephen Kenny, whose work with Bohs earned such high praise, “with our season starting again in mid-April it means we will be well prepared for the matches in Europe in July. Up until now the Irish teams were always at a disadvantage. The qualifying rounds of the European competitions took place during our close season but is all changed now because of our switch to summer football and we should be in top form when the European competition kicks off.”

Conservative estimates suggest that Bohs can expect to earn €140,000 from their two matches in the first round of the Champions’ League qualifying tournament. With a very real possibility of being drawn against opposition from one of the lesser nations like Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta or Wales, they can expect to more than double that by advancing to the second round.

“This is a real bonus for us,” said Bohs’ secretary Gerry Cuffe. “Our good results over the past three seasons have now kicked in to give us a real bonus and that is only right and proper.

“Our manager, Stephen Kenny, now has the perfect platform to help the club make real progress at European level and this seeding is proof positive that our League is moving in the right direction with the drive to develop on a more professional level.”

UEFA operate a complicated bonus system in which all teams competing in the UEFA Cup and Champions’ League competitions receive bonus points for every positive result achieved. The system of seeding teams is based on the accumulated points, and Bohs made real progress in this regard over the past three seasons.

In August, 2000 Bohs competed in the UEFA Cup and scored a significant success by beating Aberdeen in Pittodrie 2-1 when Roddie Collins was manager. They lost the return leg in Dublin 0-1, but went through on the away goals rule. In the second round, they lost to the German team Kaiserslautern 1-3 in Dublin, but created a sensation by beating a team then running third in the Bundesliga 1-0 in Germany to earn big bonus points even if they were eliminated.

Kaiserslautern went on to reach the semi-final of the UEFA Cup where they were eliminated by Alaves of Spain who, in turn, were beaten in a high-scoring final in Dortmund by Liverpool. Bohs then won the big double on the domestic scene and went into the preliminary qualifying rounds of the Champions’ league in 2001. With Pete Mahon as manager, they beat Levadia Maardu of Estonia 3-0 in Dublin and after drawing a scoreless game away from home went on to lose to the powerful Halmstad of Sweden in the next round.

They can now look forward to avoiding the more dangerous opposition from countries like Latvia and Lithuania in the first qualifying round and that is a possibility that was accepted as hugely satisfying by one of the heroes of Bohs’ successful Eircom League campaign, Glenn Crowe.

Crowe, their leading goal-scorer this season with 18 goals, was disappointed to have to miss the deciding game against Shelbourne on Sunday because of injury and he admitted that he found it more difficult to watch from the stand than he would have done had he been playing.

“It was nerve-wracking having to watch without being able to pitch in and help as the game entered the closing stages.

I do not want to go through that agony again and it was a great relief when Bobby Ryan scored. The lads were great and they worked extremely hard for that result.”

Crowe expects to shake off the effects of the injury to his knee ligaments this week and is hoping that the new international manager appointed by the FAI will call him up for the squad to visit Scotland next month. He won his only cap against Greece in Athens before Christmas.

One of the most satisfying features of Sunday’s climax to the league was the sporting attitude in defeat of Shelbourne. Their manager Pat Fenlon was gracious in his words of congratulations for Bohs and made a salient point when he said: “The fact that Shels and Bohs finished in the first two places confirmed the value of developing full-time professional squads and other clubs should learn from that.”