Shamrock Rovers will face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Uefa Conference League group stages, a tie that will be televised live on Premier Sports.
Rovers’ other away trips are to Larne, the Northern Ireland Premiership champions, who have played their European matches at Windsor Park, and Rapid Vienna. The new format also gives Stephen Bradley’s side home matches against Borac from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Apoel from Cyprus and Welsh champions New Saints.
A special night in London is promised against Chelsea, the two-time Champions League winners, with Enzo Maresca’s current squad valued at €1.05 billion, to Rovers €4.28 million, according to transfermarkt.com.
All six games will be shown live on Premier Sports between October 3rd and December 19th, as the Dublin-based subscription channel bought the exclusive rights to show the Conference League in Ireland.
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RTÉ, Virgin Media and TG4 passed on showing Rovers’ qualification games.
The dates of each fixture will be confirmed on Saturday but the Hoops will play their first two matches on October 3rd and 24th, with the last four after the League of Ireland season ends on November 1st – on November 7th and 28th, and December 12th and 19th.
Should Rovers finish in the top eight – each victory is worth €400,000 and €133,000 per draw – the last 16 takes place on March 6th and 13th.
If ranked ninth to 24th following the six games, they go into a two-legged playoff on February 13th and 20th, to reach the knock-out stages, which would shorten their off-season to late December into early January.
Clubs that reach the last 16 of the Conference League earn €800,000 with Uefa paying out €200,000 for making the play-offs.
Rovers are already guaranteed €3.17 million in European prize money while St Patrick’s Athletic earned €750,000 for reaching the Conference League playoffs, where they lost to Istanbul Basaksehir 2-0 over two legs.
The League of Ireland finishes on November 1st with Rovers hosting Waterford in a meeting that could decide which club is playing European football in 2025.
After an abysmal domestic campaign by the defending champions’ usually high standards they currently sit fifth in the table, a point behind Waterford and Sligo Rovers, albeit with two games in hand.
If Rovers win their 10 remaining league fixtures they will finish on 69 points, three shy of last season’s title-winning return. The top three and FAI Cup winners go into Champions League, Europa League and Conference League qualifiers next summer.
The FAI Cup final is on November 10th but Bohemians already knocked Rovers out in the second round.
In 2022 Bradley was compelled to prioritise the pursuit of a third straight league title, as Derry City were on their heels, over the Conference group stages with leading goal scorer Rory Gaffney benched for three games against Gent (Belgium), Djurgardens (Sweden) and Molde (Norway). Rovers picked up two points, drawing twice at home to Djurgardens and Gent.
West Ham United went on to beat Fiorentina in that season’s final while Olympiacos of Greece are the current champions.
Two years later, Rovers have improved their squad by re-signing Danny Mandroiu on a short-term deal and keeping Ireland under-21 striker Johnny Kenny on loan from Celtic.
Rovers’ dispute with RTÉ is ongoing after the club refused to accept the national broadcaster and FAI announcement that the Premier Division tie against Sligo Rovers on September 13th in Tallaght will be televised live.
“Shamrock Rovers was made aware of the intention of RTÉ TV to broadcast our next home league game on Sept 13th by the league communications office this morning,” read a statement on Thursday. “The club is considering its position on the matter.”
Rovers’ long-running issue with RTÉ was exacerbated by the national broadcaster not providing live coverage of their recent European qualifiers due to budgetary constraints caused by covering Euro 2024, the Olympics and the Paralympics.
