UCD granted Uefa licence to compete in Europa League

Airtricity League First Division side UCD have been granted special permission by Uefa to take part in this next season's Europa League after they qualified through their finish in the Airtricity League Fair Play table.

The Belfield club received a place in the competition at the start of May but only had that place confirmed today after the FAI made an extraordinary licence request to Uefa.

The Uefa Fair Play Table - which is calculated on the basis of the behaviour of association’s international teams, club teams in Uefa competitions and fans - was topped by the Netherlands with England coming in second place and Ireland third.

Despite a third place finish in the Irish Fair Play league UCD still availed of the extra place as Dundalk, who topped the table, and St Patrick's Athletic, who came in second, are already in European competitions thanks to their league finishes.

As a result of UCD receiving the licence there has been two changes to their fixture list - the game against Shelbourne due to take place on Friday July 3rd has been rescheduled for Tuesday July 9th at the UCD Bowl, while the Students game with Athlone originally set for Friday July 10th has been put back to Sunday July 12th, also at the UCD Bowl.