It was as unexpected as it is exciting but news from UEFA this morning suggests that Euro 2028 is going to be held with games taking place in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The joint bid from the FAI, IFA, and the FA’s of England, Scotland and Wales is now the only one which is ‘live’ following the news that Italy and Turkey are combining their 2028 and 2032 bids for staging only the latter.
The UEFA statement read:
UEFA confirms that it has received today a request from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) to merge their individual bids into one joint bid to host UEFA EURO 2032.
In 2021, UEFA initiated a bidding process for the hosting of two consecutive editions of its European Championship, in 2028 and 2032. TFF entered the process for both editions, while FIGC decided to bid only for the 2032 edition. A joint bid to host the 2028 edition has also been placed by five associations: England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
UEFA will now work with FIGC and TFF to ensure that the documentation to be submitted for their joint bid is compliant with the bidding requirements.
If the joint bid does comply with such requirements, it will be submitted to the UEFA Executive Committee at the meeting scheduled on 10 October, where the appointments for 2028 and 2032 will be made. Decisions on venues and match schedules will be made at a later stage.
There is still time to get the Casement Park project up and running in Belfast, allowing for Dublin and Belfast to stage games in stadia that match the requirements.
Sport for Business will be hosting a Business of Sport breakfast with the Irish Football Association, Ulster GAA, and Ulster Rugby in September and the topics up for discussion at that event have just been shaken up a touch.
