With Fenerbahçe SK unable to compete in this season's tournament, the UEFA Emergency Panel decided a draw would determine which losing team from the play-off round would be reinstated. Emmet Malone, a journalist from the Republic of Ireland – a country with no clubs in the group stage – was invited to make the draw, and drew APOEL FC, little realising the reaction that was in store.
One of the Cypriot side's fans tweeted that he would name a pub after the Irishman, while another named his son after him. Offered a complimentary trip by the club to watch a game, Malone suggested "that one act of complete randomness might most appropriately be repaid by another". APOEL obliged, paying for 11-year-old Dublin boy James Mohan, who loves football but cannot play because of a heart condition, his younger brother Thomas and their mother Brenda to visit Nicosia for the visit of Eintracht Frankfurt.
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