Update:
Last night Cork City added another minimum €630,000 to the €1.2 Million secured the previous evening by Dundalk with progress to the next round of qualifiers for European Club competition.
Cork’s 1-0 home win in front of a crowd of over 5,000 at Turners Cross is a massive financial as well as sporting boost for the SSE Airtricity League.
All sports are equal but some are more equal than others.
Off the back of the European Championships and heading into a new World Cup Cycle international football has been to the fore but it is in the club game that the massive money is available and SSE Airtricity League Champions Dundalk secured a valuable slice last night with their come from behind draw in Iceland.
That ensures progress to the next stage of the Champions’ League qualifying process where they will face Belarus Champions BATE Borisov home and away over the next two weeks.
A win there and they could play Manchester City for a place in the Group Stages of the tournament.
Wednesday night’s two second half goals earned a minimum payout for the club of €1.2 million, ten times what they got for winning the domestic League last season. If they were to make it to the group stage they would secure a minimum of €12 million.
Given that the win last night was worth more than the entire annual budget for the vast majority of sports in Ireland there will inevitably be some who question how fair that is.
The prize money from last night would cover the entire budget for the Irish Paralympics team heading to Rio in September, as well as most of the whole Olympic squad’s final preparations.
The reality though is that the money follows the money and it is the highest levels of club football that generate the biggest incomes from every revenue stream of sponsorship, ticket sales, broadcasting and endorsement.
Dundalk have done well to put themselves into a great position. Their ambitions need not end with that though.
