WE are just over a fortnight removed from Real Madrid lifting the Champions League trophy for a 15th time at Wembley Stadium and Euro 2024 is just four days old but thoughts are already turning towards next season’s European football action.
Local clubs found out today the five teams that they could potentially face in tomorrow’s Champions League and Europa Conference League first qualifying round draw.
Irish Cup winners Cliftonville will find out their fate in Wednesday’s second round draw when it will be narrowed down to the winner of one of the first round Conference League ties.
For the first round, all teams are divided into regionalised groups in order to cut down on travelling with each group having five seeded and five unseeded teams.
Back-to-back champions Larne are the only Irish League representative in the Champions League draw which will take place at 1pm with the Conference League draw following an hour later from UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The Inver Reds are unseeded and could get a chance for revenge on HJK Helsinki after the Finnish champions broke hearts when they prevailed after extra-time at this same stage last year in the second leg at Solitude.
There is potential for a spicy all-Ireland affair with Shamrock Rovers, in which case Larne boss Tiernan Lynch may be on the phone to Derry manager Ruaidhri Higgins for some advice.
Otherwise, there is potential for trips to Estonia, Latvia or the Faroe Islands with Flora Tallinn, FK RFS, who lost to Linfield last year and KI Klaksvik all on the seeded side of Group Two.
The latter of these three made a fairytale run to the Conference League groups stages last season - becoming the first Faroese side to make a major European group stage - and will be an inspiration that Irish League clubs will hope to follow.
It is also worth noting that all potential opponents for Larne are mid-season so will have the advantage of competitive match fitness.
In the Europa Conference League, Linfield, Crusaders and Derry City are all on the seeded side of the draw with the Crues in Group Two where they can also make the trip down the M1 to Dublin with Damien Duff’s Shelbourne potential opponents.
A short hop across the Irish Sea to face Welsh outfit Caernarfon Town is also a potential for Stephen Baxter who, despite retiring at the end of last season, will make a swansong in the dugout as new Seaview gaffer Declan Caddell does not currently hold the required badges for UEFA competition.
If they don’t stay relatively local, the Hatchetmen could be on their travels to Malta to face Floriana, Andorra to take on Atletic Club Escaldes or Macedonia to clash with European debutants GFK Tikvesh.
Linfield and Derry City are both in Group Two on the seeded half of a draw that also includes a potential trip to Wales to face Bala Town, who Larne defeated in their first ever European tie in 2021.
Otherwise, a Scandanavian summer looks likely for both with Vikingur of the Faroes, Stjarnan of Iceland and VPS Vaasa from Finland all unseeded.
Supporters will perhaps be hoping for a trip to the sunnier and warmer climbs of Gibraltar to take on Bruno’s Magpies, who have only ever traveled to the island of Ireland in European competition - losing to Crusaders in 2022 and Dundalk last year.
The first leg of these first round ties are due to be played week commencing 8th July with the second legs week commencing 15th July.