UEFA Euro: 2028 hosts confirmed as UK & Ireland, 2032 goes to Italy & Turkey

[Yorkie]

Looks like it's coming home:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/22/uk-and-republic-of-ireland-in-line-to-host-euro-2028-after-no-one-else-bids

[Guest neesy111]

32 nations. 

 

Should've been kept at 16.

[tgarve]

19 minutes ago, neesy111 said:

32 nations. 

 

Should've been kept at 16.

More games - more fun? 

[Miercoles]

20 minutes ago, neesy111 said:

32 nations. 

 

Should've been kept at 16.

Best thing about the Euros was that there were less filler teams...

[GeordieDazzler]

 

 

 

[number37]

32 nations qualifying out of 55 is pointlessly daft.

 

Might as well have a league where European nations compete against each other, perhaps broken into divisions based on previous performance. 

[Disco]

As unnecessary to expand the team numbers as it is to include 5 individual federation nations (or 2 actual nations) hosting it especially if you’re the only bidder. 

Hopefully SJP will get some games either way.

[Pata]

24 teams just doesn't work and they were never going back to 16. Qualifiers are a bit ruined but I don't think the tournament is worse for it. Smaller nations did alright in 2020 and there were still decent countries missing like Norway, Serbia, Ireland, Greece, Slovenia, Bosnia, Romania, Bulgaria etc.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Pata

[Stifler]

1 hour ago, GeordieDazzler said:

 

 

 

They will fucking get it as well.

?

[Guest HTT II]

They should just do away with qualifiers and make it one big tournament!

[Anderson]

If they're going up to 32/55, surely need to cut some teams out of qualifying? Give a bye to the 16 who are in League A of the Nations League for example.

[Foluwashola]

Aye absolutely need to do something, would take a failure of unimaginable proportions for one of the bigger nations to miss out. Nee point.

[Yorkie]

2 hours ago, Anderson said:

If they're going up to 32/55, surely need to cut some teams out of qualifying? Give a bye to the 16 who are in League A of the Nations League for example.

 

Rory Smith's idea was to have those who get to the last 16 of 2024 automatically qualify for the next tournie. 

[Miggys First Goal]

Surprised by this after the whole Euros final trouble last year.

[Miercoles]

3 hours ago, HTT II said:

They should just do away with qualifiers and make it one big tournament!

That's actually a way cooler idea, I know you're probably joking but... A knockout tournament of all 55 countries would be absolutely insane. Just seed some byes based on ranking and fucking get into it with a 64-team bracket. 

[bowlingcrofty]

7 hours ago, Yorkie said:

Looks like it's coming home:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/22/uk-and-republic-of-ireland-in-line-to-host-euro-2028-after-no-one-else-bids

Turkey bidding as well

[Dancing Brave]

Even Scotland will qualify 

[joeyt]

Boris says Ukraine should host Euro 2028

[Pandamninator]

On 24/03/2022 at 06:36, Miggys First Goal said:

Surprised by this after the whole Euros final trouble last year.

 

You wouldn't be able to host the tournament anywhere on the continent if you held crowd troubles against bidders.

[wiseman]

On 24/03/2022 at 05:49, Miercoles said:

That's actually a way cooler idea, I know you're probably joking but... A knockout tournament of all 55 countries would be absolutely insane. Just seed some byes based on ranking and fucking get into it with a 64-team bracket. 

Give last tournaments top 8 plus host nation auto wins for round 1 and could be good fun to watch.

[triggs]

There's really good depth in European football and 24 teams doesn't really work so I think 32 teams in it is fine. Take the point that maybe 8 teams should qualify automatically based on Nations League but then those teams would probably be at a disadvantage in terms of cohesiveness if they weren't playing games

[Yorkie]

Content management update. 

 

Guardian piece:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/oct/10/uk-and-ireland-confirmed-hosts-euro-2028-men-uefa

 

Quote

 

The Football Association’s chief executive officer, Mark Bullingham, hailed a “brilliant day” for the UK and Ireland after it was confirmed they will stage the men’s European Championship in 2028. He promised a national event that leaves no area of the host countries untouched.

 

Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium looks certain to hold the opening match with the semi-finals and final taking place at Wembley. It will be the highest-profile sporting event held in the UK since London 2012 and, for sheer scale, the biggest football tournament held on either island.

 

Bullingham said the bid’s success vindicated the decision to prioritise it ahead of an attempt to host the 2030 World Cup and he believes it will herald a long-overdue transformation of the UK’s grassroots facilities.

 

“It’s something we’ve been working really hard on during the last few years,” he said. “We’re looking forward to putting on a fantastic tournament. It’s a brilliant day for the country.

 

“The stadia are spread throughout the whole of the country so everyone has an event within touching distance. It is critical that the whole country feels they are involved and we have that excitement throughout every part of the country.”

 

Ten venues have been confirmed in nine cities and Uefa has agreed for the first time that fan zones can be created in places not hosting games. It means regional centres such as Bristol, Brighton and Edinburgh could hypothetically play a part in the event while matches are played elsewhere.

 

Two stadiums, including Everton’s new ground at Bramley Moore dock, are yet to be completed. An element of doubt continues to surround Casement Park, the Northern Irish element of the bid. It involves the redevelopment of a dilapidated GAA stadium and the project, whose projected costs are thought to have exceeded £160m, has been hit by delays.

 

Uefa has not made clear whether a contingency plan is in place. But the stadium has been backed by the UK and Irish governments and Patrick Nelson, the Irish FA chief executive, said he was confident it would be completed on time.

 

“We’re assured by the government [in UK and Ireland] that the funding will be made available for it,” he said. “We’re fairly sure it will fit within the timescales we need. We’re going to be working with Uefa a lot over the next five years and we’ll ensure that it’s all done.”

 

Nelson took a moment to reflect on the particular significance co-hosting Euro 2028 will hold for Northern Ireland. “I think George Best will be looking down and smiling on us. This is a fantastic day for all five [hosts] but especially for us: 25 years ago, the Good Friday agreement was signed and maybe at that time people would not have dreamed that we might be able to host something like this. Now we’re just five years away from doing it.”

 

Gareth Bale, who attended the brief announcement ceremony at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon in his capacity as an ambassador for the bid, expressed hope that Euro 2028 would have a similar effect on Wales to the groundbreaking semi-final appearance his side made in 2016. “To have it on your doorstep, that atmosphere, those kids are going to be watching their idols and their heroes playing and I think that will inspire the next generation even more,” he said.

 

Bullingham warmed to that theme by touching on a vital element of the tournament’s legacy. “We know as a country our facilities are an embarrassment and we know we lose a huge number of grassroots football games when the weather is bad,” he said. “So it is critical so we can transform our facilities and every kid has a local facility at a decent standard that they can use.”

 

The bid’s seeds were sown last year after the FAs elected not to pursue hosting Fifa’s showpiece in 2030. It was given a clear run after Italy and Turkey chose to concentrate on a joint bid for Euro 2032, which was also accepted on Tuesday.

 

“We have never doubted we made the right decision,” Bullingham said. “We were choosing between two tournaments: one we felt we had a really good chance of winning, one we felt we at best would have been a real long-shot to win. We chose to go for 2028 and we are delighted we did; we think the announcement helps vindicate the decision.”

 

The host countries will go through qualification for Euro 2028, with two “safety net” berths for any who do not reach it on merit. Bullingham described it as “an easy discussion had early on” from England’s perspective, emphasising the benefit of competitive games. It is unclear how the reserve places will be distributed if, for example, three of the nations fail to qualify. Noel Mooney, the Football Association of Wales chief executive, said he believed the fairest tiebreaker would be measurement of performance in the years before the tournament.

 

Rishi Sunak cited the successful hosting of the women’s Euro 2022, which was won by England, as proof of the new bid’s strength. “We host tournaments better than anyone else,” he said. “It’s going to be a massive boost for the economy. We’re going to welcome millions of people to the country and it’s going to inspire a whole new generation.”

 

 

 

 

[Deuce]

Everton’s new digs getting the nod over Anfield. I’m sure the response on RAWK will be measured.

[Disco]

Hope we get some teams with big travelling support/UK diaspora up here so the city is rammo.

[Yorkie]

Just now, Deuce said:

Everton’s new digs getting the nod over Anfield. I’m sure the response on RAWK will be measured.

 

I would love to know how that decision was arrived at, mind.  Anfield itself has had significant redevelopment and I assume is more than fit for purpose to host such an occasion, and clearly has far more gravitas than Everton's uncompleted digs.