Black Tigers and Red Imps - Champions League qualifiers 2019

[Southport Zeb]

So less than a month after Liverpool lifted the Champions League trophy in Madrid, the first challengers to their crown started (and in some cases finished) their campaigns. This afternoon in Pristina Andorran champions FC Santa Coloma met their Sanmarinese counterparts, with the Andorrans winning 1-0 - Camochu getting the tournaments first goal (in his debut after joining from Auckland City). In the evening game it was another single goal deciding it, with hosts Feronikeli beating Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar.

The Kosovan and Andorran champions meet on Friday, with the prize of a trip to the outskirts of Oswestry for the winners. The losers drop to the Europa League, along with today's losers.

[EIM]

Losers? The Europa League isn't for losers. It's for second winners, thanks very much.

[Southport Zeb]

In Fridays preliminary round final FC* Santa Coloma had a man advantage and a goal advantage shortly after half time, but could not hold on to the latter as Feronikeli came back to win 2-1. This means I get to add to Kosovo to the list of countries I've seen a team from, when they travel to play The New Saints next week.

* I keep referring to the Andorran champions using the "FC" part of their name so that they are not confused with local rivals UE Santa Coloma, who have themselves qualified for Europe on seven occasions.

[seand]

Looks like only a matter of time before Kosovo climbs the ranking and is ranked ahead of the micro-nations and some of the other strugglers. NotOswestry, Linfield and Dundalk enter the fray next week. TNS enjoying the benefit of seeding (a reward, basically, for qualifying every season) got a gift of a draw with the preliminary winners, but Feronikeli will be no push-over. Seeded Dundalk will be warm favourites against Riga, unseeded Linfield will be long shots against Rosenborg.

[Southport Zeb]

I went to TNS v Feronikeli last night. The first half was a bit of a non-event, during which a local brass band parped up every now and then, occasionally with tunes that made sense for the occasion (When the Saints Go Marching In) but more often not (The Floral Dance, a Beatles medley that ended with Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da). The band left at half time, and it may not be a coincidence that the game greatly improved. TNS opened the scoring just after the break from a penalty and added a second shortly after via a simple tap in following a corner. It looked like TNS had a foot in the next round until Feronikeli pulled a goal back with a couple of minutes left. Thing she got worse for the "Welsh" side as they gave away a stoppage time penalty, which the Kosovan side converted to send them into the second leg leading on away goals.

Elsewhere the big upset of the day was AIK losing 2-1 at Ararat-Armenia. Other results went largely as expected, although Red Star Belgrade probably hoped for better than a goalless draw at Suduva.

[Sporting]

Why "Welsh"?

[Gangster Octopus]

Red Star and Celtic? How many other ex-champions are playing before the school holidays've started?

[Sporting]

School holidays started here before the last week of June.

[Southport Zeb]

Why "Welsh"?

Because they play in England.

[Sporting]

Ah

[Sporting]

Sort of like Berwick?

[Janik]

Why "Welsh"?

Their ground is in England. And they are a plastic club funded as a means of promoting a company rather than existing for Footballing reasons.

[Guy Profumo]

Their ground is in England. And they are a plastic club funded as a means of promoting a company rather than existing for Footballing reasons.

Berwick Rangers are a "plastic club"?

[Southport Zeb]

TNS advanced tonight after substitute Dean Ebbe scored the only goal of the evening in Pristina. They will play FC Copenhagen in the next round.

Elsewhere there were a couple of surprise winners on away goals - Estonia's Nomma Kalju defeating Shkendija of Macedonia and Valletta getting the better of F91 Dudelange. Sarburtalo Tbilissi managed to lose all of their three goal first leg advantage within the first eleven minutes of their home leg against Sheriff Tiraspol, but then seemed to have remembered about defending before scoring what turned out to be the winning goal.

[Patrick Thistle]

Seeing TNS get through has added to my gloom. The funding they get from their annual Champions League run subsidises their professional team for the rest of the season (it sure as heck ain't paid for by paying customers) giving them a huge advantage in the league.

(I appreciate Zeb's use of Scare Quotes around "Welsh".)

[Sporting]

Are TNS and the MK franchise the most disliked clubs round these parts?

[Patrick Thistle]

Probably. Most of the others on my shitlist have at least one supporter on here.

[Southport Zeb]

As expected Rosenberg comfortably beat Linfield, a 4-0 win in Trondheim tonight making it 6-0 on aggregate. Dundalk have advanced, but will probably be disappointed to have required penalties after two goalless draws against Riga. The Irish champions now have a long trip to Azerbaijan to take on Qarabag, victors over Partizan Tirana.

Six unseeded sides advanced in sixteen ties - Nomme Kalju, Valletta and Saburtalo Tbilisi last night were joined by CFR Cluj (beat Astana), Ferencvaros (beats Ludogorets) and Sutjeska Niksic (beat Slovan Bratislava). Two of these sides - Ferencvaros and Valletta - will meet in the next round

[Satchmo Distel]

How much money do clubs get at this stage?

[ursus arctos]

More detail than you would like to know

UEFA Champions League – champions and league paths
Each domestic champion club that does not qualify for the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League group stage will receive €260,000 in addition to the amounts due for participation in each qualifying round.

Each club participating in the qualifying rounds that does not qualify for the UCL play-offs will receive the following amounts per round played:
• preliminary round – €230,000
• first qualifying round – €280,000
• second qualifying round – €380,000
• third qualifying round – €480,000 (Only for clubs eliminated from the champions path, since clubs eliminated from the league path qualify directly for the UEFA Europa League group stage and therefore benefit from its distribution system.)
• No solidarity payments will be paid in the play-offs as the clubs involved will benefit from the UEFA Champions League/UEFA Europa League centralised phase distribution.

Solidarity payments to clubs that do not qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League

The solidarity payments to non-participating clubs via their national associations and/or leagues will represent 4% of the overall gross revenues of the two competitions.

A forecast total of €130m will therefore be distributed to national associations and/or leagues for their clubs.

[Satchmo Distel]

Those payments do seem large enough, as Patrick notes for Wales, to put the turnovers of champion clubs way beyond what the others in their leagues could aspire to, even in these lowest ranked associations.

[Patrick Thistle]

I mean obviously Barry benefitted from some Europa League cash and only had to go to Belfast whereas TNS had to take a team all the way to Kosovo. But yeah, the money available really separates the league into haves and have nots.

[Lang Spoon]

I am led to believe Dundalk have mostly spunked their cash away from the years they had decent runs in Europe, which is sad. They surely have little hope in the next round this year.

[Patrick Thistle]

Re-reading those amounts and TNS are going to get at least €670,000 euros for their progress so far.

[Greenlander]

How much of that disappears in travel and other related costs just trying to get between some of the places that compete at this stage.