Shelbourne, Linfield and a tale of two Irish champions in the Champions League

For those unfamiliar with the history and complexities of Irish football we have occasionally placed (N) for the Irish League/Northern Ireland, and (S) for the southern League of Ireland/Republic of Ireland, at points in the text. The Irish Football Association (IFA) (N) governs the former, while the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) (S) governs the latter.

There were 1,300 Dubliners belting out “champions of Ireland” as their team waved an Irish tricolour in a stadium in south Belfast last night. They were the followers and players of Shelbourne, last season’s winners of the League of Ireland and they were relishing a 1-1 away draw at Windsor Park, home of Irish League champions Linfield.

The 1-1 result meant 1-2 on aggregate to Shelbourne. They are into the next qualifying round of the Champions League.

Yes, they play Champions League football in July.

It seems a long, long way to Budapest and the final next May, of course, but the road there starts now in places such as Minsk and Malta and, over the past week, in Ireland, south and north.

Given Irish history, ancient and modern, given there are still two Irish national soccer teams and two Leagues, the idea of one Irish champion knocking out another Irish champion in a Champions League qualifier provoked knowing looks when the draw was made. Then all involved tried to talk it down.

It was the first meeting of two Irish champions in the Champions League, albeit in a qualifying round, since Shelbourne played Linfield’s great Belfast rivals Glentoran in 2005 and there was some anxiety, with the second leg in Belfast in a month when historically the politically divided city is on edge, that matters could spill over.

And it has been tense — a contentious bonfire half a mile from Windsor Park being the centre of attention last week.

Referee Andy Madley was brought in from England’s Premier League for the second leg, but aside from some performative chanting from both sets of away fans, behaviour in both legs was restrained, well-policed. There will be, though, some questioning the wisdom of Shelbourne’s players’ decision to wave a giant Irish tricolour after the final whistle.

It was taken from the travelling support and had ‘Shels’ written across it, and it was returned to the fans after a couple of minutes, but in a place obsessed by flags and emblems everyone knew it was more than a football flag. It was not exactly Graeme Souness planting a Galatasaray flag on Fenerbahce turf, but it is just as well the vast majority of the 6,000 or so home supporters had vacated the premises by then.

Evan Caffrey with the Shels tricolour (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

The loud, repeated chorus of “champions of Ireland” came after that and, taken together, it demonstrated that this was not your average Champions League qualifier.

Understandable efforts to describe the tie as “European”, rather than project it an extension of cross-border Irish rivalry, worked. To a point.

You do not get the Champions League anthem at this stage but Shelbourne’s victorious manager, Joey O’Brien — the former Bolton and West Ham defender who played in Europe for both clubs — praised his players last night for their controlled possession “because, in European football, possession is massive”.

O’Brien, who succeeded Damien Duff as Shelbourne manager only a fortnight ago, did not want to turn this into an Irish derby or a referendum on Irish football. Nor did his Linfield counterpart David Healy.

O’Brien said “the build-up around this, it’s been massive, you don’t get that in league football”. Healy agreed.

This is the professional’s perspective. It includes finance and strategy, not just tactics and the emotions of winning and losing. The two clubs received €900,000 (£778,000; $1.04m) for being here. Shelbourne now have an additional €750,000 and a second qualifier, against Qarabag of Azerbaijan. The first leg is next week. They can see a route forward, if not to Budapest or even the Europa League but eventually into the lucrative Conference League group stage.

Linfield, meanwhile, drop into the Conference League qualifiers and face Zalgiris of Lithuania. In UEFA’s coefficient rankings, the Irish League (N) is 47th out of 55. The League of Ireland (S) is 31st.

So the two champions and the two Leagues go their separate ways. It is how it is.

When Rory McIlroy tees off in Portrush at 3.10pm at the British Open, he will have the entirety of Ireland supporting him, a unifying presence. Similar wishful claims are made for rugby union, cricket, boxing and other sports. But Irish football is divided and has been for over a century.

It reflects on-the-street daily reality in a city like Belfast, a different sporting truth.

Full-time approaches at Windsor Park on Wednesday night (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

That Shelbourne-Linfield was a modern soccer fixture could be seen outside Shelbourne’s Tolka Park an hour before the first leg eight days ago: there were half-and-half scarves on sale.

Admittedly they were not flying off the shelves; then again, the capacity at the 101-year-old ground had been cut to 3,600 with only 300 allowed from Linfield.

But it was sold out and there was tangible anticipation.

Last October the two previous Irish champions, Shamrock Rovers (S) and Larne (N), met in a cross-border European tie, but it was a one-off in a group-stage game in the Conference League. Larne could not host the game at home due to UEFA criteria, moved it to Windsor Park and lost 4-1.

There was much northern teeth-gnashing about Rovers’ superiority reflecting that of the League of Ireland’s as a whole. A headline in the Belfast Telegraph before this first leg read: “Why the Irish League’s battered reputation is on the line”.

Linfield are not Larne. Linfield have won 57 Irish League titles and have an active and latent fanbase of such scale the club is a contender to be called the biggest on the island. Allied to this fixture being in the Champions League, it is a reason why it was considered larger than last year’s match.

There was also Linfield’s history in the European Cup — in 1979, when they met reigning League of Ireland champions Dundalk, the rioting at the first leg in Dundalk was so bad UEFA banned Linfield from hosting the second leg and moved it to the Netherlands.

Plus, when the draw was made, Linfield and Shelbourne were managed by the most prominent individual in each league — Healy in the Irish League and Duff in the League of Ireland.

Linfield manager Healy consoles his players after their first-leg defeat at Tolka Park (Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Duff’s effect on Shelbourne and the League overall in the past three-and-a-half years has been colourful and stimulating. Ultimately it led Shelbourne, without the biggest budget, to a first title in 18 years. From there came a first Champions League game in that time.

Five days after the draw, however, Duff abruptly walked out. There has been no public statement as to why.

His assistant, O’Brien, stepped up. He is not Duff. Whereas Duff’s verbal fireworks might have illuminated the build-up, sparked big conversations about the state of Irish football domestically, O’Brien kept it quiet, match-focused. The 39-year-old is not apolitical — O’Brien wears pro-Palestinian merchandise on the touchline — but he understands the nuance of Irish soccer language.

“I know there is a derby feel to it,” he said. “We’re playing a team from the north and they’re the champions. But, ultimately, it’s just a chance to progress.”

Linfield’s coach, George McCartney, was with O’Brien at West Ham. They owned a greyhound together. He mentioned that.

O’Brien on the touchline at Windsor Park (Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Healy concurred.

“It’s a European tie, first and foremost,” he said. “We don’t see it as an all-island game… Other people will talk about it of course, because it’s looking at you straight in the face — it’s north v south. But it’s not something we’ve talked about in the dressing room. it’s not something I’ve spoken about to the players to try to gee them up.

“They shouldn’t need to be geed up. It’s the first round of the Champions League.”

Chris Shields, the Blue Dubliner, was suspended for the first leg but he was at Tolka and described the atmosphere as “European, a brilliant visual spectacle”. Shields said he “never got into the ideology of a north v south game. We were drawn together in Europe and that is the way I and the team have approached it. It is much bigger than a north v south fixture”.

But once it was done, Shelbourne’s flag-waving revealed the cross-border factor was and is significant.

It is no surprise. These are rivalries, friendly and otherwise, over a century old, though some stressing antagonism forget, for example, that Shelbourne were once an Irish League club.

Formed in 1895, nine years after Linfield, Shels followed another Dublin club, Bohemians, into the Belfast-based League in 1904. Shels’ very first Irish League game was against Linfield. Their first away game was in Belfast, against Distillery. The Athletic News called the Dublin club “the League’s new baby”. In 1906 Shelbourne won the Irish Cup (N) and again in 1911 and 1920.

Ireland had no border then, it was one country governed by Britain. It had one Ireland soccer team, which played in the British Home Nations tournament. In 1914 Ireland won it. The team contained Linfield’s Sam Young and Shelbourne’s Val Harris.

But the broad, deep and violent political divisions leading to Partition also led to the creation of the League of Ireland (S). Shelbourne remained in the Irish League (N) throughout this turbulence until 1921, but when they drew the Irish Cup semi-final in Belfast in 1920 — as holders — Shelbourne expected the replay to be in Dublin. The IFA (N) said otherwise.

Shelbourne were furious and withdrew from the Irish League. It was a turning point. Along with seven other clubs (S) they formed the League of Ireland. Sincere attempts at a quick reconciliation failed and what became known as ‘The Split’ endured.

Shels did re-apply to join the Irish League in 1934, but were denied. Throughout the decades since there were inter-League games and various cross-border competitions. One was a cup called ‘North-South’ and in 1962 Shelbourne played Linfield at Windsor Park. But the Dubliners would not return there until 2006.

Since 2003 the League of Ireland (S) season has run from February to November, in part to help their clubs in Europe. The Irish League (N) remains August to May, which over the past week has meant a deficit in match fitness for Linfield, a club whose model includes the selling of talent from their productive academy — 16-year-old Kalum Thompson left for Nottingham Forest this week. Ceadach O’Neill and Braiden Graham joined Arsenal and Everton respectively last summer.

In a different economic environment, those boys would stay. But they go and it looked ominous in the first half of the first leg when Shels ran up a 9-0 corner count and the older Blues who stay were red in the face.

Mipo Odubeko, who once scored 35 goals in the Manchester United youth team, made it 1-0 in the second half.

At 22, Odubeko is back in Dublin after an unfulfilling spell at West Ham, but he is playing in the Champions League, something noted by English team-mate Harry Wood. Wood, too, was at Old Trafford as a boy, then moved to Hull City and said Champions League football “is a big buy-in — you’re not playing European football in England unless you’re in the Premier League”.

Shelbourne’s Mipo Odubeko holds off Linfield’s Christopher McKee at Tolka Park (Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

After the final whistle in that first leg, a Shels fan heading towards the Linfield section waving a flag was halted by an angry Shelbourne director.

A week on, at 0-0 in the second leg, Linfield thought they had a chance. But Matthew Fitzpatrick missed an open goal and Ali Coote, a former Scotland youth international who was playing for Detroit City last year, made it 2-0 on aggregate.

Budapest was disappearing for Linfield, but then Madley awarded a penalty in first-half added time and Shields converted. Dramatically, Shelbourne scored one of their own in the same added period only for Madley to be asked to consult VAR. The goal was overruled. It remained 1-1 and 1-2 on aggregate. In an eventful match, Madley then showed a red card to Linfield’s Ben Hall just past the hour.

The contest subsided. Shelbourne’s controlled passing saw them through. Odubeko and Evan Caffrey were impressive. Healy was disappointed. This was his 500th match in charge of Linfield.

Shelbourne march on. The Champions of Ireland, they say, still in the Champions League.

(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Seb Daly / Getty, Charles McQuillan / Getty, Ben McShane / Getty, David Fitzgerald / Getty)