THE road to Tirana begins tomorrow with the draw for the first qualifying round of the inaugural UEFA Conference League.

TNS and Newtown are joined by Bala Town in representing the JD Cymru Premier in the draw at 12.30pm tomorrow.

With the first qualifying round ties set to be played on July 8 and 15 the Welsh trio will learn their opponents with the clubs divided into seven groups of eight teams and one group of 10 teams using coefficient rankings.

Within each of the eight groups, the clubs are split into an equal number of seeded and unseeded sides.

TNS are seeded in group seven with Andorran side Sant Julia, Lithuanians Kauno Zalgiris, Glentoran of Northern Ireland and Bohemians of the Republic of Ireland among their potential opponents.

Sant Julia

Border Counties Advertizer: Estadi Comunal d’Andorra la Vella. Picture: Wikipedia.Estadi Comunal d’Andorra la Vella. Picture: Wikipedia.

Unió Esportiva Sant Julià, also known as UE Sant Julià, is an Andorran football club based in the parish of Sant Julià de Lòria.

The team have been playing in the top flight since the foundation of the Andorran Premier League in 1995.

Since then UE Sant Julià have won the Andorran championship twice and are five time Copa Constitució winners.

 

Glentoran

Border Counties Advertizer: The Oval. Picture: Wikipedia.The Oval. Picture: Wikipedia.

Glentoran Football Club was founded in 1882 and play at the 6,000 capacity Oval in Belfast.

The club are regulars in Europe and reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1974.

The club is one of the most successful in Northern Ireland with 23 cups and 23 league titles.

 

Kauno Zalgiris

Border Counties Advertizer: Darius and Girėnas Stadium. Picture by Augustas Didžgalvis.Darius and Girėnas Stadium. Picture by Augustas Didžgalvis.

The club was founded as FM Spyris Kaunas in 2004 as the football section of basketball club Žalgiris Kaunas and moved to their current stadium, the Darius and Girėnas Stadium, in 2015.

After their debut season in the A Lyga, the club adopted the name FK Kauno Žalgiris in 2016.

Currently the club uses the Stadium of the Football Academy of Kauno Žalgiris from Kaunas as their stadium. The stadium has a capacity of 500.

 

Bohemian

Border Counties Advertizer: Dalymount Park in Dublin. Home of Bohemian FC. Picture by Jack Pollock.Dalymount Park in Dublin. Home of Bohemian FC. Picture by Jack Pollock.

More commonly referred to as Bohs.

The Dublin club are the second oldest League of Ireland club in continuous existence and fourth most successful club in League of Ireland football history, having won the League of Ireland title 11 times and the FAI Cup seven times.

Although they did not make their first appearance in European competition until 1970 their finest hour came when they eliminated Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen from the UEFA Cup in August 2000.

A 4-1 aggregate defeat to TNS in 2010 was labelled as the worst result in Bohs' 40-year European history.