Looks like it's coming homes. "The UK and Ireland's joint bid to host Euro 2028 is set to be unopposed. It comes after UEFA said it received a request from Italy and Turkey to merge their individual bids for Euro 2032 into a combined one, leaving England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as the sole bidders to stage the 2028 tournament." Given the 2021 Final was at Wembley would be nice to see one of the other nations host the 2028 final. UK and Ireland's bid to host Euro 2028 set to be unopposed
Wembley has the largest capacity by far, especially as for some reason Croke Park is not included, so it would have to host the final, surely. Would be a fantastic tournament and nice to see all 'home' nations competing. 10 host stadiums: London, England – Wembley Stadium, capacity 90,652 Cardiff, Wales – Millennium Stadium, capacity 73,952 Glasgow, Scotland – Hampden Park, capacity 65,000 (stadium to be reconstructed) London, England – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, capacity 62,322 Manchester, England – City of Manchester Stadium, capacity 61,958 (capacity to be expanded 2023-26) Liverpool, England – Everton Stadium, capacity 52,679 Newcastle upon Tyne, England – St James' Park, capacity 52,305 Birmingham, England – Villa Park, capacity 52,190 (capacity to be expanded) Dublin, Republic of Ireland – Dublin Stadium, capacity 51,711 Belfast, Northern Ireland – Casement Park, proposed capacity 34,500
Apparently Turkey are still going to make a solo bid but also offering to have a join bid with Italy for 2032. I guess it will just come down to money!
Was momentarily excited then realised it'll probably cost more to travel and stay in the host cities to watch games than it would to travel to Germany to watch next years.
England had a straight run of home games into the final in 20/21. I’m not sure potentially offering this opportunity twice in three tournaments is really in the spirit of the competition. I’d prefer they gave the 2028 final to Scotland.
I take your point but they would probably still play every game up to the final in England, should they progress. If not Wembley then Cardiff is big enough.
The Irish are very protective over Croke Park. Great stadium but it's home to a sport that no one outside of Ireland watches or understands..
Is it Gaelic football. Watched the final of a competition few days ago. Very bizarre but then so is Aussie rules. Did enjoy it.
Croke Park isn't a football stadium. It's only hosted 13 Irish national team games, all of which were in the period in which the Aviva was being built (2007-2009). Even that was controversial at the time, generally it isn't to be used for non-Gaelic sports which are thought to be in competition with rugby and football and I believe there's rules and laws preventing them from playing those sports that were relaxed at the time of the building of the Aviva. I was surprised it was on the initial shortlist to be honest, but I don't think we should be surprised it's not on the final list.
Maybe because London already has 2 stadiums in the above list with Wembley and Tottenham's stadium. 3 would be a bit too much? idk. And for Villa Park? Birmingham is England's 2nd biggest city and deserves having a stadium in the bid (it's the same in Germany btw where Hamburg is the 2nd biggest city and HSV's Volkspark is always a venue when Euro or World Cup is in Germany)
It's also very political too. Gaelic Games are strongly linked with Irish nationalism and allowing the stadium to be used in what would effectively be a British tournament was never going to happen. They're also very protective of Gaelic Games too against competition from what they see as foreign sports like football and rugby. And very protective of the amateur ethos and resistant to professional forces creeping in. The Dublin Stadium is the football stadium in Ireland so it was always likely to be used.
I don’t really understand the argument. Any host has a straight run into the final, and England didn’t in 2021. All the host nations will likely play in their own countries and regardless of where the final is, if England are in it, it will be mostly full of England fans in the same way Wembley would be full of Wales if they were to make it. That said, I don’t really care where it is but if England are in it I would probably prefer it to be elsewhere so we don’t have a repeat of the little street rats playing up like last time. It will be Wembley though.
My point was just one of balance overall. Not about Wales specifically. Italy played 4 games away from Rome in Euro 2020/21 as a host city. Other host cities had 2 group games in their home city and potentially no more if they progressed. England played 6 out of 7 at Wembley. Returning to Wembley for Euro 2028 final feels a bit out of kilter to me. And Wales potentially having most of the fans there in the miraculous event we reached it is not the same imo.
