I know it's early to start this topic, but Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona has 7 games left with a 16 point lead according to http://www.soccerway.com/national/israel/ligat-haal/2011-2012/champion-round/ and can clinch the title with a win tomorrow. Unfortunately, because Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona would get the minimum club coefficient for a club from Israel (4.400), based on previous seasons I would expect them to be seeded in Qualifying Round 2 but unseeded in Qualifying Round 3 and Qualifying Round 4 (Playoff Round) if they get that far. To compare, Maccabi Haifa has a coefficient of 13.400 and Hapoel Tel Aviv has a coefficient of 31.400. Those two clubs were good enough that the Israeli champions was seeded in every qualifying round in 2009-2010, 2010-2011, and 2011-2012 since the new qualifying round format was adopted. The draw for the first two Qualifying Rounds will be in June and Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona will play their Qualifying Round 2 first leg on July 17 or 18. Edit: Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona can clinch the title tomorrow thanks to Hapoel Tel Aviv's 3 point penalty.
Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona hosts Hapoel Tel Aviv on Monday and Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona just needs a draw to clinch the title. This forum gets so few topics that I figured the topic would stay near the top of the page without being stickied.
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/c...id=1613838.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news is titled "Kiryat Shmona come of age." Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona has clinched the title.
According to One.co.il, Kiryat Shmona will be bringing ND Gorica's Brazilian forward, Franklin Vicente, on loan for next season. I don't know what the league is like in Slovenia, but I hope for their sake that this guy is a beast.
ND Gorica is fourth out of ten in the SNL, where Maribor (who Maccabi Haifa eliminated in the Champions League Qualifying Round 3) has clinched the title with 5 games left. Slovenia is 34th in the country coefficients with a little under a third of the points Israel has. Maribor is the only Slovenian club with a better coefficient than the minimum coefficient for a club from Israel. http://www.soccerway.com/players/franklin-vicente-william-/179088/ has some information about Franklin Vicente, who has scored 3 goals in 2,024 minutes this season and 4 goals in 1,208 minutes last season.
Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona will have the 19th best coefficient out of 34 and be unseeded in Qualifying Round 2 if the other countries' current leaders win titles. In the previous three seasons of the current qualifying format, only 9, 11, and 13 of the 34 clubs in that round had a better coefficient than Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona's 4.400. The draw for Qualifying Rounds 1 and 2 will be June 25.
In order for Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona to be seeded in Qualifying Round 2 all of the following must happen: 1. Bulgaria: CSKA Sofia must blow a 2 point lead over Ludogorets Razgrad with two games left. 2. Moldova: Sheriff Tiraspol has two easy games left and can't win either. They lead Dacia Chisinau by 4 points. 3. Georgia: Olimpi Rustavi, who is tied with Zestafoni with two games left, must win the title. If Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona is unseeded they could be drawn against a Basel club that finished ahead of Manchester United in the 2011-2012 Group Stage. After Basel the next best clubs in Qualifying Round 2 (best on coefficients) are BATE Borisov, Red Bull Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, and Partizan Belgrade.
I previously said that Partizan Belgrade was the club with the fifth best coefficient in Qualifying Round 2, but http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2012.html says MSK Zilina of Slovakia has the fifth best coefficient with Partizan sixth. Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona will start against MSK Zilina. The Israeli champions are listed second so I'm guessing that means they will host the second leg. Last season Maccabi Haifa had to play all their qualifying round/playoff round second leg games away.
A good thing about being drawn against MSK Zilina is that if Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona advances, they will take MSK Zilina's coefficient for the Qualifying Round 3 draw (which is done in between the legs of Qualifying Round 2) and Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona would be seeded in Qualifying Round 3.
According to the Bet365 odds, the probabilities for next week's first leg at MSK Zilina are: MSK Zilina win: 45.6% Draw: 27.6% Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona win: 26.8%
Gotta get this done, Israel has to have a club consistently representing in the group stages to move forward.
Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona got an easy draw for Qualifying Round 3 if they advance. They would play Zestafoni of Georgia or Neftchi Baku of Azerbaijan.
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...344/match=2009423/postmatch/report/index.html is about Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona's 2:0 win today to win 2:1 on aggregate. Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona will host Neftchi Baku of Azerbaijan next week in Qualifying Round 3. Neftchi Baku is 320th with a coefficient of 2.241 for the five seasons ending 2011-2012. The minimum coefficient for an Israeli club is 4.400. If Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona advances past Neftchi Baku, they will play in the Group Stage of the Champions League or Europa League.
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...tml#kiryat+shmona+want+israels+northern+light is titled "Kiryat Shmona want to be Israel's northern light." The first leg is tomorrow.
If Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona advances, Israel will be the only country to have its champion start in Qualifying Round 2 and advance at least two rounds in all of the first four Champions Leagues with the new qualifying format divided into two paths.
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...h/report/index.html#kiryat+shmona+deny+neftci is an article about the second leg. Neftchi Baku scored in the 31st minute, Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona scored in the 50th minutes, Neftchi Baku scored in the 76th minute, and Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona scored in stoppage time for a 2:2 draw. The draw for the Playoff Round is Friday.
Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona has the worst coefficient of any of the 42 clubs that will or could play in the Champions League Group Stage. Basel of Switzerland, Anderlecht of Belgium, Celtic of Scotland, BATE Borisov of Belarus, and Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia are Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona's possible opponents. Second leg highlights (edit: it only has the first goal of the game):
I listed the five clubs from best to worst coefficient, so based on that we should hope to face Dinamo Zagreb. In last season's Group Stage, BATE Borisov had 2 points and a -12 goal differential while Dinamo Zagreb had 0 points and a -19 goal differential. Lyon scored 9 goals in the Group Stage last season and all of them were against Dinamo Zagreb. More highlights: