The choice of location for the NI stadium worries me, because: a) it's in a very nationalist/republican area, so not sure some of the locals will appreciate NI or England playing there b) not sure we could trust all the NI fans behaving themselves in area either, and I am worried it will just cause more trouble than it's worth c) I remember as far back as 2009 the discussion on upgrading Casement Park, and unfortunately for the GAA and its members, it has gotten no closer in the 14 years. I can't see it suddenly being green lit, especially as NI currently has no functioning Assembly. Would love to see the stadium finally get its upgrade (Ravenhill and Windsor, who were part of the same bid for stadium upgrades, got theirs a good while back. I think Ravenhill finished in 2011!) Otherwise, I am excited for this. Tournaments are always better when more of the UK and and Irish teams are involved, as I think it helps keep the interest high. I also love the atmosphere in Belfast when away teams bring decent nunbers with them, so having a few teams' away fans potentially basing themselves around Belfast for a few weeks is exciting tbh. Edit: just seen the home teams dont qualify automatically. What a shambles if all 5 dont make it. NI definitely won't, so I have literally went from super excited to don't care any more in the space of 2 minutes
It would be a joke if all five don't automatically qualify, especially when three of them would probably qualify anyway, so they would just be giving two places.
Utter Rubbish I want England to host a World Cup. Haven't had once since 1966 and by the time we get one Argentina & USA would of been involved in 2 and Mexico would of been involved in 3. Christ alive we cant even get a Euro to ourselves and still England have the greatest Football Stadiums in the World bar Germany. Really wish the two Ireland's, Scotland and Wales would just host this one by themselves, if they cant muster stadiums between them they don't deserve to host such a tournament. Why are we wasting the chance to souly host our own just so we can hold hands for the others with their one or two stadiums so they can be involved??? rubbish We could hold the Euro's on our own in just one city - London.
UEFA dont like the idea of one country hosting, doubt it will happen again, I like the idea of Scotland/ireland/wales having games, makes it more interesting.
Thanks for allowing us to be involved. You’re amazing ❤️ There are 7 stadiums with 50k+ capacity in Scotland, Ireland & Wales. That’s more than London.
Your very welcome But this is my point and you have highlighted it yourself there's already 7 stadiums with over 50,000 capacity within the others Countries. Between yourselves all you need to do is build up a few more stadiums to an acceptable capacity and you got it. Cardiff City & Swansea City ground increases? Use of other Irish Gaelic Football grounds?
Don’t think an increase would necessarily be required. Euro 2008 used 8 venues and Cardiff City stadium has a larger capacity than 6 of them. Pittodre and Swansea would probably be OK for some group games, along similar lines as using the likes of Selhurst Park and Craven Cottage if you held at 10 London venues.
Apparently all the hosts will enter the qualification process UEFA will then make 2 Qualification Slots available to the Host Nations that fail to qualify automatically Some might well need those slots !
Hampden not getting the big redevelopment it was hoped ? Huge Hampden refurbishment ruled out despite Euro 2028 success
Thats a real shame the plans were amazing. The scot's can create an atmosphereanywhere so it still will be rocking.
From what I've read it'll be based on their qualifying record. So whoever finishes with the most points basically. It's quite conceivable that two teams could miss out. There have been many tournaments over the years where England have been the only home nation to qualify. So if that were to happen again it would be England, the two best placed non qualifiers with two missing out. For all 5 teams to qualify you would need 3 teams to qualify outright from the groups. I'd say odds are probably against that happening so I think it's quite likely that there will be at least one disappointed country. Yeah Casement Park is definitely one of the most interesting parts of the bid. Like you say the area is heavily Nationalist and could easily lead to disorder in the area. The GAA traditionally hasn't wanted to get into bed with English sports like football and it's even more controversial now with it happening in Northern Ireland and could involve the Northern Ireland football team playing there. At least when they let the Republic of Ireland use Croke Park it was the Republic, not Northern Ireland. And the construction inflation that is affecting everyone and has played a huge part in HS2 getting cancelled and the Hampden Park renovation being massively scaled back is affecting this project too. Apparently there's signs the GAA might be prepared to raise their contribution but the costs have risen substantially and there's political controversy too over whether so much public money should be spent on a stadium when there's so many problems in society and cutbacks being made. There's huge questions over whether it'll ever get built. There's also the Everton stadium, will that get finished if they were to get relegated?
I actually think building expensive infrastructure during a financially poor climate is a good thing, as it creates jobs, so I hate when people say things like "why do we need a leisure centre/ sports facility/ theatre whenn there are poor people?".
Yeah I agree. It's always difficult to get it through politically though when there are a number of big social problems. If this does get done though, the big winner will be the GAA who will get a state of the art modern stadium for an absolute snip.
It needs one. The current Antrim home stadium is only 3.5k, and I believe the Ulster finals are usually held in Clones, which isn't in NI (3 counties of Ulster are in RoI).
Apparently, the bid requirements for 2024 are that stadiums have a minimum 30k capacity, so assuming this is the case for 2028 too this wouldn't actually work. CCS OK but Pittodre and Swansea would need to be extended.
