Irish-UK Euro 2028 bid to be unopposed

The joint Irish-UK bid to host the 2028 European Football Championships is to be unopposed.

Dublin’s Aviva Stadium and Belfast’s Casement Park will host action on this side of the Irish Sea.

The main rivals for the bid, Italy and Turkey, withdrew from the process and have decided to focus their efforts on hosting Euro 2032 in a joint bid, which leaves the Irish/UK bid as the last remaining bid in the running.

Matches would take place in England at Wembley, Villa Park, Everton Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Etihad Stadium, and St James’ Park, in Scotland at Hampden Park and in Wales at the Principality Stadium.

The Aviva Stadium was initially tapped to host games at Euro 2020, with the tournament delayed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and when the tournament went ahead in 2021, Dublin had the hosting rights taken away as the Irish government could not ensure it could host a major sporting event in line with Covid-19 era regulations.

As a compromise, the Aviva Stadium was given the right to host the 2024 Europa League final.

Next year’s European Football Championships will take place in Germany, where hopes of replicating Ireland’s first-ever major football tournament at Euro 88 looking increasingly remote after a poor start to the qualification campaign.

Ireland being given the right to partially host a major football tournament has been years in the making, with a proposed bid to host Euro 2008 between Ireland and Scotland floated during the Bertie Ahern era, with Croke Park, the old Lansdowne Road, and the proposed Stadium Ireland (better known as the “Bertie Bowl”) earmarked as host stadiums.

The bid was ultimately unsuccessful, with the eventual tournament being held in Austria and Switzerland.

Wembley would host the Euro 2028 final, marking the third occasion that Wembley has hosted the final after 1996 and 2021.