Dundalk’s European odyssey to continue on Thursday nights

Dundalk may have missed out on the club game's greatest prize but making it to the group stages of the Europa League is a pretty decent consolation prize for an Irish side with guaranteed earnings over the coming months likely to amount to around four times the club's more usual annual turnover, or roughly €6 million

On top of that they will receive an additional €360,000 for each win they can manage and €120,000 for each draw. Their prospects on that front may come down how they fare in Friday’s draw which is due to get started around noon.

The number of clubs involved - 48 - means there can be quite a lot of variation in both the quality and marketability. Manchester United would, for instance, be regarded as the most attractive from a financial point of view but Inter Milan, Schalke 04 and Feyenoord are amongst the other clubs from across Europe already sure to be participating with others joining along with Dundalk from the Champions League play-off round as well as those coming through Thursday evening’s final round of qualifying with West Ham, Panathianaikos and Rapid Vienna amongst those looking well placed to progress.

Drawing at least one or two of the better known English, Spanish or German sides would be a boost now for Stephen Kenny, his players and the club's fans and add significantly to their group stage experience but there are plenty of relative unknowns in there too with Ukraine's Zorya already in and, Russia's Krasnodar as well as Sassuolo of Italy well on course to join them.

It is for that reason that the club was anticipating before the game in Poland that it would nominate Tallaght as its ground for the home games despite the work that would be required to tick some of Uefa’s matchday boxes and the severe restrictions that some of those requirements will place on the already limited capacity.

The ground must be nominated in advance of the draw and so the hope is that if they land a Manchester United, they might look for permission to play that one game in Lansdowne Road despite the general rule that all home games must be staged in the same venue.

The first round of group games is scheduled for September 16th with the last on December 8th.