Larne’s historic progress to the Europa Conference League group stages could be ‘good or bad for the league’, says Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill.
Tiernan Lynch’s side beat Lincoln Red Imps on Thursday night – depsite being down to ten men – to reach what the manager labelled ‘Utopia’; the group stages of European football.
Larne became the first Irish League club to break through the ceiling and their reward in the draw yesterday in Switzerland were home ties against O’Neill’s old club Shamrock Rovers as well as Gent (Belgium), and St Gallen (Switzerland) and trips to play Molde (Norway), Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Dinamo Minsk (Belarus).
Larne are already guaranteed £2.6m in prize money and could rake in even more from points gleaned in the league phase and potentially TV rights.
Some fear this prize money, combined with owner Kenny Bruce’s financial backing will send Larne into the stratosphere, beyond the reach of others domestically.
We have seen this happen in Gibraltar and Wales, where the Imps and TNS respectively dominate their domestic league.
But if Larne do now have an advantage, they deserve it for what they have done on the field of play and others will benefit too, says the international boss.
The Ballymena man has first hand experience of Larne’s success as he guided Shamrock Rovers into the group stages of the Europa League 13 years ago.
“I think the biggest thing is, obviously financially it will make a huge difference for Larne, which may be good or bad for the league”, said O’Neill.
“It may give Larne an added advantage but it’s an advantage that they have gained through performance, which you have to applaud.
“There has been a lot of talk about the league striving to become more of a full-time league, a more professional league and everything that goes with that.
“This is a demonstration of that. People say, ‘you haven’t got a team in Europe, you’re not competing in Europe’. Larne changed that on Thursday night.”
O’Neill’s success with Rovers, particularly in Europe, saw him move from part-time football to the international stage with Northern Ireland.
He is enjoying his second spell in charge and is preparing for Nations League games against Luxembourg (h) and Bulgaria (a) on Thursday and Sunday respectively.
O’Neill has no doubt about just how beneficial reaching the group stages of European competition was for his career, and says it could have a similar impact on Lynch’s career.
“It was massive for me and my career, there’s no doubt”, said the former Stoke City boss.
“I had had success at Shamrock Rovers domestically. We won the league. We finished second the first year and won the league the next two years.
“But it was breaking through that barrier that gave me the opportunity to manage at international level.
“I don’t think that would have happened otherwise.
“At that time I was probably thinking more about a job in Scotland maybe, or the lower leagues in England to start there but it catapulted me higher, onto the international stage.
“We had a good team, we were well prepared, we played a lot of good teams and I learned a lot over two years at Rovers.
“We played Juventus, we played FC Copenhagen and Tottenham. We’re talking about top teams.
“It probably gave me enough confidence and belief to come in and do the Northern Ireland job.
“So yeah, it was massive for me personally.
“People will look at Tiernan Lynch, what he’s done domestically and if they look at it a little bit deeper...the club has had investment and it’s been invested smartly.
“The board runs the club well and the investor is smart, but you need a manager that can put it all together and put a team together on the pitch and Tiernan has done fantastically well.
“It could be a big night for him personally.”