European football draws take place on Friday

The draw for the first and second rounds of European competitions will be made on Friday in Geneva.

The draw for the first and second rounds of the Champions League will take place at 11am Irish time in Geneva on Friday June 21.

Shelbourne are representing the eircom League.

Shelbourne are seeded, so they will face one of the following ten 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 between the national association and its clubs.

The first round matches will take place on July 17 and July 24.

If Shelbourne are successful in their first round match they will play in the second round against one of 14 seeded clubs which include such names as Sparta Prague, Boavista, Brondby IF, Sturm Graz, Maccabi Haifa and Partizan Belgrade among others.

The second round matches take place on the July 31 and August 7.

The draw for the third qualifying round takes place on July 26 (which will include Manchester United, Newcastle United, Celtic, Barcelona and Inter Milan) and matches will be played on August 13/14 and August 27/28.

The draw for the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup is also taking place in Friday.

Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk will be drawn in this for matches that will take place on the August 15 and August 29. The draw for the first round of the UEFA Cup will take place on Friday August 30.

Meanwhile St Patrick’s Athletic go into Intertoto Cup action on Saturday at 5:30pm Irish time against Croatian side HNK Rijeka in Rijeka. Rijeka is the largest port on the Adriatic with a population of about 220,000. HNK Rijeka finished fifth in the Croatian League last season.

Four of Croatia’s World Cup squad play in the Croatian League (none for HNK Rijeka).

The second leg of the tie will be played in Richmond Park on Sunday June 30 at 3:30 pm.

If St Patrick’s Athletic are successful against HNK Rijeka they will play away in the first leg of the second round of the Intertoto Cup the following weekend against KAA Gent of Belgium on Saturday July 6.