All you need to know: Irish clubs prepare for European draws this week

The European season finished just over two weeks ago but the new campaign is very much on the minds of clubs in Ireland ahead of first-round qualifying draws on Tuesday.

Four Irish sides will enter competitions, all dreaming of lucrative rewards and possible group stage qualification.

Shamrock Rovers will compete in the Champions League, while St Patrick's Athletic, Sligo Rovers and Derry City will be in the Conference League.

Pat’s are the only Irish side which will not feature in Tuesday’s draw. Due to sanctions on Russian clubs, the Saints were bumped up from the first round into the second.

Here we explained the benefit for Pat’s, including financial and being one step closer to the group element.

The other major positive for the Irish sides is a seeding for Shamrock Rovers. It represents a major opportunity, but as always, depends on the luck of the draw.

The seeded sides in the first round would contain the likes of Malmo of Sweden, Slovan Bratislava who knocked out the Hoops last year and Qarabag (Azerbaijan).

Stephen Bradley's side will avoid the likes of those sides as they just snuck inside the seeding sides, with Linfield narrowly missing out.

However, there is still tricky opposition in the unseeded category.

Possible opponents for Shamrock Rovers in the first round are:

Lech Poznan are certainly the biggest name among the unseeded sides. Many of the teams represent a lot of travelling but there are certainly winnable games for the Premier Division champions.

There is a real possibility of an island of Ireland clash between the Hoops and Linfield.

The possible opponents will be whittled down to a small number of teams in advance of the draw.

What can they get – progress and financial

The crucial aspect of the draw is