Shelbourne will host Crystal Palace and travel to the Netherlands to face Troy Parrott’s AZ Alkmaar in the group stages of the Uefa Conference League.
The League of Ireland champions are expected to switch their three home matches from Tolka Park to Tallaght Stadium as they also welcome Drita from Kosovo and BK Hacken-Gothenburg to Dublin between October 2nd and December 18th.
Under the current Uefa rules, neither Shelbourne or Shamrock Rovers can play one-off games at the Aviva Stadium, which could hold 48,000 for a European fixture, once they confirm the 10,000 capacity Tallaght venue as their home ground.
The Dublin rivals will alternate home and away games to ensure that Tallaght is available across the six Thursday nights.
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Rovers welcome European specialists Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine, Celje of Slovenia and Hamrun Spartans from Malta in between daunting trips to Sparta Prague, AEK Athens and Icelandic champions Breidablik.
Shelbourne must also travel to Celje and Shkendija in North Macedonia.
The Hoops are unlucky to get such a tough draw as they were ranked 12th of 36 clubs in the Conference League while Shels are the bottom seed.
The full fixture list and venues will be released on Sunday, but Uefa have confirmed six Thursday night games on October 2nd and 23rd, November 6th and 27th, and December 11th and 18th before a break until the knock-out playoffs on February 19th and 26th.
Rovers were forced into an experimental off season last year, after reaching the Conference League knock-out round in February, when their understrength squad lost on penalties to Molde of Norway, which denied them an additional €800,000 windfall on top of earning €7.26 million in Uefa prize money.
Shelbourne have already secured €3.8 million for reaching the group stages for the first time with some of the prize money going to the players as win bonuses that amount in some cases to a full year’s salary.
“If you go through a couple of rounds, you can get a deposit for your house,” revealed Shelbourne’s Seán Boyd last month.
A rental agreement between Shelbourne and the South Dublin County Council, to move from Drumcondra to Tallaght will be around €15,000 per game but security costs arranged by An Garda Síochána and stadium management could bring the total to €40,000 for each of the three nights.
This can be offset by a €400,000 win bonus and €133,000 for each draw. An additional €1 million comes from reaching the last 16.
Rovers pay the council an annual rent of €150,000 which increases to €190,000 next year after signing a 15-year lease with the local authority that includes overheads and ground staff.
The four previous winners of the Conference League are Roma, West Ham, Olympiacos and Chelsea last season. The final is in Leipzig on May 27th.
In the Europa Cup, Evan Ferguson’s Roma have two trips to Glasgow to play Rangers and Celtic, after Brendan Rodgers’s side was knocked out of the Champions League by Kairat of Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, Finn Azaz has completed a move from Middlesbrough to Southampton where he will link up with fellow Ireland internationals Gavin Bazunu, Ryan Manning and Will Smallbone.
“I’m really, really excited to prove I can play for a Premier League club,” said Azaz. “I know we’re in the Championship now, but we’re trying to operate at Premier League level to ultimately get promoted and win the league.”
Shelbourne: (h) v Crystal Palace (England); (a) v AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands); (h) v Drita (Kosovo); (a) v Celje (Slovenia); (h) v Hacken (Sweden); (a) v Shkendija (North Macedonia).
Shamrock Rovers: (h) v Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine); (a) v Sparta Prague (Czech Republic); (h) v Celje (Slovenia); (a) v AEK Athens (Greece); (h) v Hamrum Spartans (Malta); (a) v Breidablik (Iceland).
Match dates: October 2nd; October 23rd; November 6th; November 27th; December 11th; December 18th.
Dates for group stage fixtures will be announced by Uefa no later than Sunday.
