Macdara Ferris

The tantalising prize of a place in next summer’s European Championship in Switzerland is within Ireland’s hands. Having drawn 1-1 in Cardiff last Friday night in the play-off final first leg, the Girls in Green will take on Wales in the Aviva Stadium in the second leg on Tuesday night in front of a crowd in excess of 25,000.

There was heartbreak for Ireland as they lost 2-1 to Wales in their European Championship play-off second leg in the Aviva. The 3-2 aggregate win for Wales sent Cymru through to their very first major tournament as Ireland couldn’t back up their World Cup qualification with a win to take them through to EURO2025 next summer in Switzerland.

UEFA have assigned a set of Austrian officials for Thursday’s Shamrock Rovers Conference League clash against champions of Bosnia and Herzgovina Borac Banja Luka (kick-off 8pm).

The Bosnian champions from last season (and from 2021) have 38 points from 16 matches level on points with second placed FK Sarajevo

With the FAI deciding not to allow Eileen Gleeson to continue her role as head coach of the Republic of Ireland senior international side, the organisation’s recruitment team are back seeking their third head coach between the men’s and women’s senior teams in the last 16 months.

FIFA have announced the host nations for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups. Morocco, Portugal and Spain will be the main hosts for the centenary edition in 2030 – that will also see Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay holding a match each.

Shamrock Rovers have secured the services of Danny Grant for next season and beyond.

Shamrock Rovers are the first League of Ireland side to qualify for the knockout stages of a UEFA European competition, with the Hoops set to play in the knockout phase play-off of the Conference League in 2025.

Shamrock Rovers’ European season will continue into 2025 when they play Molde in the UEFA Conference League knockout phase play-of

Stadium infrastructure updates, UEFA prize money, fines and the coefficient, along with some moaning about referees were all topics that our website visitors read the most on extratime.com. Here is part one of our top 20 as we count down from 20 to 11.