Casement Park included in Euro 2028 bid as Croker misses out

A Northern Ireland presence elevated the shell that is Casement Park to the forefront as the alternative second venue ahead of Croke Park.

INCLUDED: The new Casement Park stadium has been included in the Euro 2028 bid of the UK and Ireland.

London saying yes to Ulster stymied any prospect of Croke Park hosting European Championship fixtures in 2028.

The UK and Ireland collective bid is the hot favourite to be rubberstamped by UEFA over rival candidate Turkey when votes of their executive committee are cast in October but the largest stadium on the island isn’t involved.

GAA headquarters, with a capacity of 83,000, had been among the 14 stadia included in the preliminary dossier submitted last November but it has been omitted from the final 10 along with Old Trafford, West Ham United’s London Stadium and Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

UEFA were already redolent about replacing the Hill 16 terracing with temporary seats – a practice debarred for the previous two tournaments – but a sense of collegiality across the five federations elevated the shell that is Casement Park to the forefront as the alternative second venue within the 32 counties.

Northern Ireland’s active participation in the tilt – along with the Football Association of Ireland and the English, Scottish and Welsh FAs – was hamstrung by their national stadium’s 18,500-capacity.

Expanding less than a decade within the venue being rebuilt wasn’t deemed a non-starter, switching their attention to the bedeviled home of Antrim GAA across Belfast.

That project has been plagued by a litany of planning and political delays, prompting new GAA President Jarlath Burns to affirm the association’s contribution at the €15m initially committed.

Thankfully, given the cost estimate has rocketed to over €115m, the Government support which Burns demanded is in the pipeline.

Unequivocal cross-party backing, despite the continued absence of an Assembly at Stormont, will prioritise construction work getting underway before the year is out.

Anyone sympathetic towards the GAA for the Croker snub should remind themselves that the broader code will benefit, directly or indirectly by the Euros, with a spanking 34,578-seater arena as the centrepiece of Ulster.

It shouldn’t be underestimated either the clout held by the Irish FA both within UEFA and the mothership of the English FA. David Martin was till recently a Vice-President of FIFA, a place at the top table reserved for one of the four UK federations.

As FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill pointed out, the policy of ‘one city, one stadium’ – apart from London, whose Wembley Stadium is earmarked for the final – was prevalent among the bid team.

In that respect, Dublin, or more pertinently the Irish Government, wasn’t strongly placed to plead for two stadia just two years after Covid-19 restrictions caused it and Bilbao to become outliers by withdrawing Lansdowne Road from the 12 city pan-European format three months out from the Euros.

Lansdowne was due to stage four games, including a last-16 tie, in that tournament and they can expect at least five when the breakdown is revealed across the 10 stadia.

Naturally, with five teams involved, the question of automatic qualification arises and assuming the proposal is accepted, tickets will be granted to two of the hosts.

How that is decided remains to be seen but considering the relative ease of England qualifying by securing a top-two finish in the group, they may choose to wait until the regulation qualifiers conclude to allocate the fallback golden tickets.

As much as the spirit of plurality will be preached in the coming months during the countdown to D-Day in Nyon, this venture is very much being driven from London and St George’s Park, the English FA’s training base.

They remain slightly miffed at being encouraged to step aside to facilitate the sole run from Europe by Spain and Portugal for the 2030 World Cup hosting rights and the pre-match violence that tarnished Wembley’s hosting of the Euro 2020 final is a scourge they’re determined to leave behind.

Back at Abbotstown and the albatross of the FAI’s €65m debt is never far from the narrative.

“This will only support our plans to grow the game and will act as a catalyst as we seek to finance infrastructure across all levels of Irish football, from grassroots to League of Ireland,” said Hill, formerly an English FA executive himself.

"Our hope is to welcome football fans from Europe and across the world to Dublin for a number of great games in 2028 and that is a really exciting prospect for all of us.

"The tournament will also help create positive long-term community impact through volunteering, tourism and other training opportunities that provide people with skills for life."