Euro 2028 - Host bid

[lubo_blaha]

It’s just occurred to me that we could see a return of the home internationals (or Carling Nations Cup) in some form with everyone but the British and Irish teams involved in qualifying.

Reduction in air miles for the Tartan Army for a couple of years.

[eez-eh]

53 minutes ago, lubo_blaha said:

The Mail article mentioned Windsor Park being extended to 25k in the hope that UEFA would waive their usual 30k requirement.

Casement Park in Belfast is also being redeveloped to hold 30k+ although that’s a Gaelic ground.

It’s hard to see UEFA agreeing to giving an automatic qualification place to a “host” with no compliant stadia, especially when 3 other countries will be getting in with only 1 or 2 venues.

I don’t know the different areas of Belfast myself but there saw someone saying that Casement Park is in a very republican part of the city, so staging Northern Ireland games there might not be well-received.

There’s also the matter of the GAA giving up the stadium for use (same goes for Croke Park) which I don’t think is guaranteed.

[Donathan]

Reckon only England will get automatic qualification but (like with the previous Euros) they will guarantee that if any of the other host nations qualify then they will play their group games at home

[craigkillie]

It will be a 32 team tournament so I reckon they'll let us all in.

[Highland Capital]

11 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

The Mail article mentioned Windsor Park being extended to 25k in the hope that UEFA would waive their usual 30k requirement.

Casement Park in Belfast is also being redeveloped to hold 30k+ although that’s a Gaelic ground.

It’s hard to see UEFA agreeing to giving an automatic qualification place to a “host” with no compliant stadia, especially when 3 other countries will be getting in with only 1 or 2 venues.

The GAA can be quite difficult in letting their stadia be used for non-Gaelic events.  Remember the Liam Miller tribute game a few years ago was held at a GAA ground and it took them a while to allow it to go ahead as I recall.

[HibeeJibee]

Surely deploying £110-140M of public money should be conditional upon Ulster GAA making the stadium available for other uses.

[Donathan]

5 hours ago, craigkillie said:

It will be a 32 team tournament so I reckon they'll let us all in.

If they go to 32 there’s little reason not to let everyone in. Only 23 teams would miss out in that scenario and all five UK/IRE nations are pretty comfortably ranked in the top 32.

 

They could do something along the lines of:

 

10 groups of five

 

Top 2 in each group and best three 3rd placed teams qualify directly, the other four third placed teams form a playoff path. 

 

Then three other playoff paths from the top ranked UNL teams that haven’t already qualified 

 

Also likely that the home nations would be reprised in 2027 as an alternative to centralised friendlies. This would be useful for promoting the tournament. 

[Clown Job]

8 hours ago, Highland Capital said:

The GAA can be quite difficult in letting their stadia be used for non-Gaelic events.  Remember the Liam Miller tribute game a few years ago was held at a GAA ground and it took them a while to allow it to go ahead as I recall.

Didn’t they allow the Irish Rugby team to use it for a year?

I remember being a big deal allowing an England team to not only play at the stadium but also them playing GSTQ before kickoff 

When it comes down to it I’m assuming money will talk

[Donathan]

48 minutes ago, Clown Job said:

Didn’t they allow the Irish Rugby team to use it for a year?

I remember being a big deal allowing an England team to not only play at the stadium but also them playing GSTQ before kickoff 

When it comes down to it I’m assuming money will talk

There was definitely rugby played at Croke during the period in which Landsdowne Road had been demolished and the Aviva was still being built.

 

 

Not sure if football was also played there, or if the ROI football team played elsewhere. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Didn’t they allow the Irish Rugby team to use it for a year?
I remember being a big deal allowing an England team to not only play at the stadium but also them playing GSTQ before kickoff 
When it comes down to it I’m assuming money will talk

The 2009 Thierry Henry “handball” playoff defeat was the last of 13 association football game at Croke park and the only competitive one they lost (Brazil and Poland also won friendly)

France went on to fail miserably at the 2010 World Cup their opening amidst the constant drone of the vuvuzela

They probably think Ireland were the lucky ones

[Pie Of The Month]

The Times yesterday reporting that no other bids came in prior to the deadline and also that none of the host nations will qualify automatically.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uk-and-ireland-set-to-host-euro-2028-in-absence-of-rival-bid-gdjcvf72b

Quote

The UK and Ireland are set to be named as the joint hosts of Euro 2028 with no rival bid having come forward before Wednesday’s deadline.
Barring a surprise last-minute entry, Uefa will make a formal decision to appoint Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on April 7. It will also set a deadline of the end of the year to receive all the necessary government guarantees and if those are not received in time it will re-open the bidding for the tournament.

It is also expected that Italy will confirm it is bidding to host Euro 2032. Turkey has been pushing Uefa to consider a bid from the country for either 2028 or 2032 having bid unsuccessfully several times before but sources say it appears to have ruled out challenging the British and Irish bid.
Russia had also been considering a bid for Euro 2028 but that has been abandoned following the invasion of Ukraine.

Uefa is expected to expand the tournament from 24 teams at Euro 2024 in Germany to 32 teams for 2028. Under Uefa’s rules for co-hosting however, it is likely that none of the five host nations will qualify automatically.
The necessary government guarantees include commitments on security, marketing, tax and visas among other requirements.

For example Uefa will require an income tax exemption for any players taking part in the tournament so that earnings during Euro 2028 will not be subject to UK income tax. A similar exemption was granted by the government for last year’s Euro 2020 matches and the Uefa Super Cup in Belfast so it should not pose any problems.

In relation to the 2021 Super Cup exemption, the government said: “The government is committed to making sure the UK continues to be an attractive location to host international world-class sporting events.
“The granting of an income tax exemption supports this objective where the event in question is internationally mobile and where such an exemption is a condition of the bidding process to host the event.”

The Times revealed in January that a 2030 World Cup bid was to be dropped in favour of a joint bid for Euro 2028. Prince William, the president of the English FA who was involved in the 2018 campaign, was among those who did not want to be part of a World Cup bid if there was a good chance of losing or becoming involved in controversies again.

The UK and Ireland will guarantee commercial success for Uefa. Around two-thirds of the matches would be hosted in English stadiums with the final at Wembley, and all the home nations plus Ireland will host matches.

The FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham said last month: “We believe we can put together an incredibly strong tournament in many ways. We also know we can deliver a really strong commercial return to Uefa and we feel that puts us in a strong position.

“Uefa are being very transparent with all 55 countries that they want to use the 2024 [in Germany] and 2028 men’s Euros to rebuild their coffers and rebuild their reserves, which they’ve had to use during the pandemic.”

 

[Donathan]

No automatic qualifiers, but in a 32 team tournament, all would be looking to qualify comfortably. England are currently ranked 3rd in UEFA, Wales 13th, Scotland 21st, ROI 27th and Northern Ireland 28th.

 

 

Qualifying would likely be along the lines of:

 

- Play UNL group stages in autumn 2026. Bookmark the results.

 

- 10 groups of 5/6 in 2027 (DHs in March/June/September/October/November). Top 2 from each group qualify.

 

- Then fill out 4 playoff streams using the exact same logic as Euro 2020. Group winners get first priority and can’t be placed in a stream with someone from a higher league. 
 

- However, instead of only 1 team out of 4 qualifying from each stream, there would be 3 places available. So the SF winners would qualify for the tournament and then the SF losers would play against each other for the last spot. 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

No automatic qualifiers, but in a 32 team tournament, all would be looking to qualify comfortably. England are currently ranked 3rd in UEFA, Wales 13th, Scotland 21st, ROI 27th and Northern Ireland 28th.

“Comfortably” may be an overstatement there in the case of the Irish sides who are perilously close to 33rd


Although with 6 years to go current rankings are only of limited use.

Gareth Bale will turn 39 the summer of 2028

[craigkillie]

No automatic qualifiers, but in a 32 team tournament, all would be looking to qualify comfortably. England are currently ranked 3rd in UEFA, Wales 13th, Scotland 21st, ROI 27th and Northern Ireland 28th.
 
 
Qualifying would likely be along the lines of:
 
- Play UNL group stages in autumn 2026. Bookmark the results.
 
- 10 groups of 5/6 in 2027 (DHs in March/June/September/October/November). Top 2 from each group qualify.
 
- Then fill out 4 playoff streams using the exact same logic as Euro 2020. Group winners get first priority and can’t be placed in a stream with someone from a higher league. 
 
- However, instead of only 1 team out of 4 qualifying from each stream, there would be 3 places available. So the SF winners would qualify for the tournament and then the SF losers would play against each other for the last spot. 

I doubt that this is how qualifying will work. They are not going to give 3 places to Leagues C or D.

[Donathan]

9 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

I doubt that this is how qualifying will work. They are not going to give 3 places to Leagues C or D.

Yeah, fair point, I didn’t really think that through.

 

What about:

 

Top 2 in each group plus best 8 third placed teams qualify.

 

Then do one playoff for each league 

[craigkillie]

They will most likely completely rejig qualifying.

[velo army]

6 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

They will most likely completely rejig qualifying.

The Irish teams like this.

[Donathan]

21 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

They will most likely completely rejig qualifying.

Other option is to ditch is altogether and just say all the UNL league A and B teams are in. 

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

1 hour ago, Donathan said:

Other option is to ditch is altogether and just say all the UNL league A and B teams are in. 

That isn't going to happen.  It's manifestly unfair, and also UEFA need the qualifiers to play meaningful games for revenue.

11 x groups of 5 teams.

Top 2 from all groups qualify (22).  . 

11 3rd-placed teams have a playoff with top 9 non-qualified teams from UNL.

OR

Top 2 all qualify automatically (22). Best 3rd place team qualifies automatically (23)

3rd placed teams have playoffs (28).  Remaining four places awarded using playoffs through Leagues A-D in UNL (albeit, the chances of playoff being awarded to 9-team UNL Group D seems small).

[craigkillie]

I mentioned this before, but I think they will do something like putting through the top 3 of each Nations League A group and then having them play an expanded Nations League rather than qualifying. The left over countries will play normal qualifying.