Tonight Dundalk will be aiming to do what a League of Ireland side has failed to do since 2011 and get through a round in the champions league. Back then it was Shamrock Rovers who overcame Estonians Flora Tallinn to get through to the 3rd qualifying round where they ended up losing to FC Kobenhavn before dropping into the Europa League play-offs in which the overcame to reach the group stage.
Tonight Dundalk face a much tougher opponent in serial Belorussian title winners BATE Borisov with the prize of up to €500k on offer for progress. Huge money for Dundalk, an installment for BATE.
However Dundalk's opponents are an interesting case study of what progress could result in. Rewind back to summer 2003 when Bohemians faced BATE Borisov in the 1st qualifying round. Bohs beat BATE 3-1 on aggregate to progress and few would've predicted that in the 12 years since, BATE would've reached the group stage three times. The group stage is life changing or can be for a club outside the "major" leagues of Europe. The money on offer could and has in BATE's case upgraded facilities, improve the youth academy and attract higher caliber players.
By having Dundalk progress tonight means the country co-efficient will improve which does affect other sides. If the co-efficient is high enough Irish sides might be starting in the 2nd qualifying round in the Europa League and not the 1st which offers more money to participants. Also by seeing Dundalk progress other sides in the league will strive to improve to get their own payday from Europe. In Belarus last season Dinamo Minsk reached the group stage of the Europa League and that in itself not only bought money to them it helped raise the co-efficient even higher.
Those are the positives that progress through rounds in the champions league can do for a club. The negatives are also seen with BATE Borisov. Since they've broken into the champions league group stage BATE have enjoyed a complete monopoly of the domestic league. The Belorussian league is now a replica of what the Scottish Premiership is with Celtic, a procession. Before BATE and their riches from European progress happened the league was lower key but at least it was competitive. In fact between 1998 and 2005 (just before BATE's current 9 in a row title streak) there were seven different title winners. Since then no one has had a look in. BATE continue to pocket the massive champions league money while the likes of Dinamo Minsk and Shakhtyor Solihorsk (Who both won titles in that competitive period) scrap for Europa league money which itself isn't bad but not as high as the champions league money obviously.
That is the major negative that progress for Dundalk would be. The league of Ireland is one the rare leagues in Europe that is actually competitive. In the decade we have seen Cork City, Shelbourne, Drogheda, Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, St Pats and Dundalk all win the title at least once. With the riches on offer to Dundalk there is a possibility that they could pull away from the rest and dominate the league like BATE have done in Belarus or Rosenborg did in Norway when they hit the big time.
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