Ireland to co-host Euro 2028

Ireland will be formally announced as co-hosts of Euro 2028 at a UEFA meeting next week.

Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will be one of the host stadiums for the joint bid between Ireland and the United Kingdom, with the bid being unopposed.

Croke Park was initially floated as a potential host stadium, but the Aviva Stadium got the nod in this instance.

Belfast’s Casement Park will also host the action on this side of the Irish Sea.

Turkey were the main rival to the joint Irish/UK bid to host Euro 2028, but opted to bow out of the process and attempt a co-host bid with Italy for Euro 2032 instead.

The Irish/UK bid will be formally rubber-stamped at a UEFA meeting in Nyon next week.

A statement from the FAI read “our bid is ground-breaking for the Men’s European Championships and will deliver lasting legacies across the whole of Ireland and the UK.”

Matches will 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.

Ireland’s aspirations of hosting a major sporting 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.

Ireland launched a bid to host the ongoing Rugby World Cup, but France claimed the honour of hosting that tournament.

Dubliners with a long memory may recall former Lord Mayor Gay Mitchell proposing Ireland bid to host the Olympics, commissioning a report in 1992 to see if Ireland could host the Olympic Games.