Europe getting farther away

On Soccer:After their 4-0 win in Denmark it seems that the Steve Staunton and his players will travel to Slovakia this week confident that they can haul the Republic back into serious contention for a place at next summer's European Championships. Qualification remains a tall order, but after the nightmarish start made by the team to last season, the games in Bratislava and Prague do at least come at a time when some pride has been restored to the national team.

In contrast, the league here has been licking its wounds since last week, when the last of the Irish teams, Drogheda United, limped out of this year's European competitions.

After three years of tangible progress, Derry City, St Patrick's Athletic and Paul Doolin's men come away from this summer's campaign with just one win (over a club side from San Marino) and four draws to show for their efforts.

It is the league's worst collective performance in four seasons and - in stark contrast to last year, when Cork, Derry and Drogheda between them outperformed the representatives of Poland, Serbia and Norway - this time the league is already certain to pick up fewer ranking points than Moldova, Slovenia or Lithuania.

Given the element of luck involved in the draw for European competitions, the progress made by Irish clubs was always likely to suffer a few setbacks.

Against that, though, the success in recent years has essentially been based upon the ability of just one team each year to string a run together, and it is disappointing that none could manage that this time around.

There are, of course, extenuating circumstances. The near-disintegration of Shelbourne in the close season meant the elevation of Derry to the Champions League qualifiers at a time when they were struggling to find form and had just changed managers.

Likewise, St Patrick's Athletic found themselves thrust into the Uefa Cup after losing last season's cup final and finishing 21 points off third place in the Premier Division. John McDonnell's squad may have been strengthened a good deal over the close season and made a great start to the new campaign, but, like City, they were having problems by the time Odense came to town.

The Dubliners, indeed, might explain away what happened over the two legs on the basis of growing pains. McDonnell, in the hope that it would provide a much-needed spark, sought to add newly acquired players to a side that had gone off the boil.

That spark never materialised. And the fact the Danes looked such strong favourites, after a comfortable nil-all draw here, to win the return leg is perhaps the best explanation for the decision by the Inchicore outfit to travel to Odense just one day before the second game.

Quite what City were thinking of, though, when they left for a Wednesday game in Pyunik on the Monday morning beggars belief.

The team had been in Dublin on the Saturday night for a league game, but, presumably with economy in mind, delayed their departure for 36 hours before travelling via Dublin, London and Prague to arrive in the Armenian capital on Tuesday morning, where, predictably, they were held up at length by immigration officials.

It's hard to blame John Robertson, who had just arrived at the club, but impossible to imagine that it would have happened if Stephen Kenny or, for that matter, Pat Fenlon, had still been around.

The pity of it is that Pyunik looked decidedly ordinary and the City defence looked tired, which they must have been, during the second game.

Whether the Irish sides can get back on track next year remains to be seen, but there will surely be some disappointment that Michel Platini's eagerly anticipated proposals for opening the Champions League group stages up to Europe's less-well-off nations haven't exactly flung the doors open for the following season.

The Uefa chief made much of his intention to champion the game's small guys when running for election and repeatedly cited the need to allow access to the club game's greatest stage to sides from outside the biggest leagues.

It is, to be fair, a difficult juggling act (G14, with which he is attempting to make peace, have promised to fight the changes), but his proposals have erred strongly on the side of caution; those countries just outside the elite, ranked between about eight and 16, appear to have been offered most in a complicated rejig.

Platini's gesture to the weaker nations is the offer of six places to be played for by the champions of the bottom 40 nations in the European ranking list.

In recent years, these countries have tended to be represented by either three or four clubs, with Turkey (one of the continent's three most lucrative television markets, as it happens) the Czech Republic and Norway (well, Rosenborg actually) faring best.

Platini's move may make for more regular guest appearances by clubs from the likes of Bulgaria, Switzerland and Austria, but Irish clubs - particularly if this year's form is anything to go by - may be waiting a while longer.