The UEFA Champions’ League comes to Ireland this evening with Sligo Rovers hosting Molde from Norway at the Showgrounds and Cliftonville entertaining Glasgow Celtic in North Belfast.
There will be a major focus on the dugouts in Sligo with former Manchester United star Ole Gunnar Solksjaer (pictured) in charge of the visitors and Ian Baraclough for Sligo incredibly becoming only the sixth ever English manager to take charge of a team in Europe’s premier soccer competition.
In Belfast unfortunately the greater emphasis may be on what happens around the ground.
Rioting in North Belfast since Friday’s 12th July parades has taken place uncomfortably close to Cliftonville’s ground which has had its capacity increased to 5,000 but will still leave many thousands of supporters, especially of Celtic on the outside.
Over 70 PSNI officers have been injured since the weekend and 60 arrests made.
It is hoped that the game does not provide a flashpoint for those intent on trouble, especially when the eyes of the world are back on the region for reasons it had been hoped were left long behind.
The betting odds of success for Sligo and Cliftonville in the first leg contests are greater than 50/1 which puts the challenge in context but for local fans and indeed commercial partners like Connolly Volkswagen who are involved for local reasons but will benefit from global exposure of the main VW brand, this is a dream come true to be playing at such a level, and sport being sport, who knows.
Sport for Business Members’ Weekly later today will carry news about the three clubs at the head of the sporting world by value, as well as a look at aspects of the Open Championship and how business and sport in technology are meeting in the US.
Sports Tourism Seminar at Croke Park (September 19th)
Sport for Business 20/20 at Ulster Bank HQ (October 8th)
The Business of Youth Sport Seminar (November 28th)
