The Football Association of Ireland have formally announced a joint bid with England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to host the 2028 European Championships.
The initial aim of the UK and Ireland hosting the 2030 World Cup has been abandoned with the five FAs deciding to “focus solely” on the Euros following a feasibility study “to host the third largest sports event in the world”.
“The feasibility study included an analysis of the economic impact,” read an FAI statement, “the political football landscape and likely costs of hosting major international tournaments”.
CONFIRMED | Republic of Ireland & UK nations to bid for EURO 2028
— FAIreland ⚽️ (@FAIreland) February 7, 2022
Following an extensive feasibility study, we have agreed to focus on a bid to host UEFA EURO 2028, the third largest sports event in the world#EURO2028 | #WeAreOne | #WeAre100 pic.twitter.com/YEQFghLBUo
The new plan places the British and Irish football associations firmly in Uefa’s camp ahead of their collision course with Fifa in the summer of 2028, when the global governing body intends to launch its biennial World Cup tournament.
The International Olympic Committee has also expressed disquiet with two major football tournaments in the same window as the Los Angeles Games.
Uefa and Conmebol have already threatened to boycott a biennial World Cup while the IOC could drop football from its schedule entirely.
"We've got a very clear bidding landscape and timeline for the Euros," said Mark Bullingham, the English FA chief executive. "With the World Cup there's many areas of uncertainty, in terms of the timeline [and] in terms of the frequency of the events and so on."
Both we and the Irish Government are extremely excited at the possibility of the bid
According to FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill, the Euros offers a similar return on investment to a World Cup with "the European tournament carrying a far lower delivery cost and the potential of the benefits being realised sooner".
The Irish Government is expected to financially support the bid with the GAA already approached about the use of Croke Park and possibly a redeveloped Casement Park in Belfast.
The Aviva Stadium will also be part of the six to eight matches held in the Republic of Ireland.
“Both we and the Irish Government are extremely excited at the possibility of the bid and are working closely together to make sure that we maximise value from it,” said Hill. “The Government is firmly behind this – they see the benefit of hosting major global sporting events.
Home venue
“We await to see from Uefa exactly what the bidding process will be in relation to the number of stadia needed. We also need to find out if it’s a 24- or 32-team tournament before we take those decisions. But obviously both Croke Park and Aviva Stadium would be in our thinking.
“We talk to the GAA on a regular basis anyway. That was part of the initial discussion [for the 2030 World Cup].”
Uefa will supply bid requirements to the UK-Irish bid on March 30th but Northern Ireland’s home venue of Windsor Park in Belfast cannot be included as it only holds 18,500, and the minimum capacity requirement is 30,000. This indicates that the Irish FA are potentially part of a bid that will bring no matches to Northern Ireland.
"We know the national football stadium at Windsor Park doesn't meet the requisite capacity for the Euros but we also understand that being part of the bid brings a massive range of benefits to Northern Ireland," said Patrick Nelson, the IFA chief executive. "We love the Euros and 2016 was fantastic for us."
But we're very keen to host games, clearly. We're not along for the ride
When asked about the redevelopment of Casement Park – a project that is currently under judicial review due to objections from residential associations – Nelson responded: “We are absolutely keen to play a full part and we want to host games in Northern Ireland. We know we have to work with partners, primarily government partners, to make sure we have a stadium that is capable of doing that.
“We’re in a position, as of last week, that we don’t have the executive office operating, first minister and deputy first minister,” said Nelson of the collapse in power-sharing at Stormont. “Presuming they won’t come back before the Assembly election coming up then we’re clearly going to work with the government partners as we have been doing for the last few years.
“We have some regional funding that is hopefully still in the pipeline, still in the mix and we’ll be working with the government in Northern Ireland to make sure that comes through.
“But we’re very keen to host games, clearly. We’re not along for the ride.”
The UK-Ireland bid must submit 10 stadiums, one of which has to have 60,000 seats, preferably another two have 50,000 capacities, four with 40,000 and three with 30,000. Casement Park, if redeveloped in time, would hold 34,000 but the Euros could still clash with the Ulster football championship.
None of the five chief executives, when asked directly over Zoom, were able to say whether all or any of the host teams would automatically qualify.
“We all want to be there, obviously,” said Nelson. “But those are the discussions we’ll have with Uefa.”
Violent scenes
It remains to be seen how much impact the violent scenes at Wembley during the rescheduled Euro 2020 final – when the Casey Report last December found that only for England losing the penalty shoot-out and a heavy downpour, events could have been far worse – will impact a bid that is up against Turkey and a potential joint bid from Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia.
"[Uefa president] Aleksander Ceferin came out and said, from his perspective, that event wouldn't have any impact on any bidding," said Bullingham. "We will take the learnings from that final."
The full list of bidders will be announced on April 5th before it is whittled down to a shortlist on April 12th, 2023 with Uefa announcing the winners in September 2023.
"We have a saying here in Wales 'gorau chwarae, cyd chwarae' which is 'together stronger' and bringing five nations together in Uefa is special, it's almost a tenth of the Uefa membership of 55 members," said Noel Mooney, the Welsh chief executive who acted as the interim FAI ceo in 2019.
“You’re right to say that there has been a chequered past in terms of bid history but we are really confident that this will clearly be the best bid out there.”
