Shamrock Rovers v Borac Conference League details: TV, tickets, Borac form guide (domestic and Europe), prize money and referee

Where can I watch this match?

If you get on the winter coat and bring a woolly hat to head out on the LUAS or Dublin Bus on Thursday evening to Tallaght, you can watch the match live in front of you.

Kick-off is 8pm and Rovers’ reported on Sunday that they had already sold 6,000 tickets.

By the way you might even want to cycle out as South Dublin County Council have recently installed bike parking outside the stadium. 

Can I watch the match on TV?

You can watch the game between the Hoops, who are undefeated in their four league stage games, and champions of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borac Banja Luka on Premier Sports 1. That channel is available through SKY, NOW and Virgin Media. In the UK, it will be shown on TNT Sports 5 and discovery+.

How has Borac done in the Conference League?

They drew 1-1 at home with Panathinaikos, beat APOEL 1-0 away (Rovers drew 1-1 at home with that Cypriot side), lost 2-0 away to Vikingur (who Rovers beat in the first qualifying round of the Champions League back in July) and won 2-1 at home to LASK.

They are 15th in the Conference League table – Rovers are sitting tenth.

They will play Omonia in Cyprus in their final League Stage game next week on the night Shamrock Rovers play in Stamford Bridge against Chelsea.

How did Borac qualify for the Conference League?

They lost 6-2 on aggregate to PAOK in the second qualifying round of this year’s Champions League. They then beat Icelandic side KI 4-3 on aggregate in the Europa League third qualifying round.

In the Europa League play-off, they drew 1-1 on aggregate after extra-time with Ferencváros before losing 3-2 on penalties to drop into the League Stage of the Conference League.

How did they do in Europe in recent seasons?

Last season they lost in the UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round 3-1 on aggregate to Austria Wien.

Linfield beat them 4-0 on aggregate in the Europa Conference League second qualifying round in 2022.

How are Borac getting on domestically this season?

The Bosnian champions from last season (and from 2021) have 38 points from 16 matches level on points with second placed FK Sarajevo (but with a game in hand) and six points off top spot held by Zrinjski Mostar who they lost to 1-0 at home last weekend.

Prior to that they had won their last five domestic matches in a row.

Will extratime.com be covering the game?

Yes, we will have a reporter and photographer in Tallaght Stadium on Thursday night.

How much prize money has Rovers banked and what is available?

Rovers’ earnings are over the €4.93m mark for this European campaign but that is set to climb.

Each point picked up in the group stage is worth €133k (€133k for a draw and €400k for a win) and progression out of the league stage with qualification for the knockout round (last 32) of the Conference League earns €200k, with the round of 16 earning €0.8m.

Of the 36 teams in the league stage, 24 teams will advance. Clubs 1 to 8 in the league ranking of the league phase will receive an additional €400k and go directly through to the round of 16, while clubs 9 to 16 will receive an additional €200k and will play in the two legged knockout round in February at home in the second leg. 

Teams 17 to 24 will be home in the first leg while teams 25 to 36 will be eliminated.

There is a further league ranking bonus paid on the finishing position in the league stage.

The last team (36th place) gets one share worth €28k, with the bonus increasing by €28k for each position so finishing 24th (which would qualify a team for the next phase) is worth €364k, 18th €532k and the team who tops the league stage gets 36 shares (€1.08m). 

These are minimum ranking bonus figures as when there is a draw, UEFA pay out €133k to each club (€266k in total) which is lower than the €400k paid out to the winning team.

So for each draw in the league stage, UEFA take the unassigned €133k and will proportionally increase the initial value of the shares distributed to each position. There have been 12 draws so far adding €1.596m to the pot for distribution across the 36 clubs.

Who is the referee?

[image or embed]

— extratime.com (@extratime.com) 10 December 2024 at 20:54