Emmet Malone On Soccer: A Champions League exit this evening would be sure to have serious consequences for Deportivo, a club that earned a quarter or so of its €75 million turnover last year from its impressive run in the competition. For Shelbourne, though, the benefits of a place in the group stages are almost unimaginable by the standards of Irish football.

For a start, the club could expect around €4 million in prize-money from UEFA for participating, with substantial additional bonuses being paid on the basis of results achieved in the six group matches. Based on their recent experience with the home game against Deportivo the three Dublin games would almost certainly have to be transferred to Lansdowne Road with the result that the club would get over another €1 million from gate receipts.

Of at least as much importance to Shelbourne's long-term fortunes, however, is the willingness of outsiders to invest in the club now that it has provided a hint of what it can potentially achieve.

Club chairman Finbarr Flood has repeatedly expressed frustration that substantial investment has been hard to generate and insists that a business model based on regular qualification for the qualifying stages of the Champions League and even occasional progression to the group stages could yield a decent return for those willing to fund the club's future development.

In recent weeks there have been positive signs with club officials confirming that a large number of would-be investors have expressed tentative interest in becoming involved. Much work needs to be done before the new funding would be in place but the early signs are good.

At present the club is around €1.5 million in debt and meeting even week-to-week obligations like wages can be a struggle at times. Club officials have long been attempting to come up with a way of overhauling the finances and the sale of its lease on Tolka Park and a move to a new site, where revenue generation would be easier, is currently seen by most as a goal.

Problems remain, however, and it is far from certain when, or even if, such a move might be undertaken, although success tonight would certainly provide new momentum to the club's plans for the future.

On the football front, the return to Ireland in recent times of players like Dominic Foley, Alan Moore and now Gareth Farrelly has highlighted how the gap has narrowed between what the leading Irish clubs can pay and what Irish players outside of the very top level can expect to earn from English or European sides. With additional money to play with from the Champions League, as well as a basis on which to sell the club to players, manager Pat Fenlon could expect to substantially improve the quality of his squad.

Overall, the expectation would be that Shelbourne, if it spent wisely, would be in a position to become the dominant force in the Irish game just as Rosenborg, Skonta Riga and Maribor have in Norway, Latvia and Slovenia respectively. A huge amount of work and an amount of good fortune would be needed if that position was to be held over the long term but the experience elsewhere has been that once a gap is created it is difficult for other clubs to close again.

All of which, of course, assumes that Shelbourne achieve what is still regarded here in Spain as unthinkable, the elimination of Deportivo from the Champions League this evening. What will be interesting is what can be achieved in the event that Shelbourne fail to get the score draw or win they need to go through.

Only a hefty defeat this evening at the Riazor Stadium could really undo the improvement to the club's, and indeed the Eircom league's, image over the past month or so.

The consolation prize for defeat would be a place in the first round proper of the UEFA Cup where the Dubliners will face a seeded team, either another of the giants from one of Europe's leading leagues or a club more like Hajduk Split, which, though challenging, might be beatable. Either way, even if Shelbourne go out again, the club could yet, with luck, double the €500,000 or so they have made from their involvement in European competition this summer and E1 million would represent a substantial windfall to a club that turns over just twice that each year.

If investors can be persuaded of the potential to do better in the years ahead then this evening may still be the start of a new era for the club regardless of the outcome. For the moment, though, the club's officials and fans are dreaming only of victory and the swifter route to glory.