THE 2028 Euro-championship in Belfast – what’s not to like? A lot, it seems. Kate Hoey says that the Irish Football Association (IFA) have “rolled over”. Former IFA chief Howard Wells thinks that a backward governing body will get “scraps off the table”. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wonders where the money will come from and wouldn’t it be better spent elsewhere? I disagree.

Accepted, the IFA were cornered in a mess of their own making. Back in the noughties, they were offered a free gratis 35,000 seater stadium at Maze-Long-Kesh (MLK) to be paid by the UK Government. Wells rightly described it as a “no brainer”. It was, but the IFA ‘blazers’ of the day thought otherwise.

The current IFA regime were faced with the dilemma of ‘No Casement, no Euro 2028’.  Current IFA chief, Patrick Nelson, considers this another “no brainer”. He is right. Clearly many Northern Ireland fans disagree. Some chant “You can stick your Casement Park….” and vow not to attend. Given current form, neither Irish side, North or South, look likely to qualify anyway. Nor do football fans always see the wood from the trees. German, French, Spanish and Italian fans will show up. Scandinavians, Poles, Albanians and more will buy tickets. The ‘blazers’ will take their freebies and Belfast will glory in hosting a major international event.

Will it be “crumbs” from the table? I think not. Five matches will be played at Casement, subject to winning the construction race against time. Up to ten international teams will visit, with their fans. The teams will all need a training base up to UEFA standards. So investment will arrive at two or three sites. That’s a handy legacy to start with.

Euro 2028 will also force proper traffic management planning on match-days.  One conflict legacy is that Belfast remains ‘car-city-central’. The 2020 Carl Frampton-Luke Jackson fight at Windsor, otherwise brilliant, saw very poor event transport links on an atrocious night of heavy rain. By contrast, Aami Park – a 30,000 stadium in Melbourne – provides barely any car-parking but the excellence of its traffic plan means that buses, taxis, metros, park and rides dissipate large crowds in short order. Learning to manage event traffic would be a boon for the city.

Mark Langhammer
2Gallery

Mark Langhammer

The West of the city will play its part in creating a welcoming environment. Bars, eateries, B&B’s and Airbnb’s will thrive. New businesses may flourish, but we need more public infrastructure – meeting spaces, fan-zones, piazza’s even, to accommodate match-day reverie. And fans will spend in all parts of the city, not just the west.

The design of the new Casement involved globally renowned stadium architect Populous and looks all the world like the Arup designed Tele-2 Arena, Stockholm’s municipal stadium. The Tele-2 is higher ‘spec’ and has a roof, but they’re similar in design and spectator size. When Crusaders played IF Brommapojkarna at the Tele-2 in 2014, I was taken for a private tour of the stadium and was tickled to see the electronic ad-board advertise current and future events – IF Bromma vs Crusaders shared billing with the Rolling Stones and Justin Bieber! Since, Paul McCartney, Adele, Celine Dion and Rihanna have all played the Tele-2 with Madonna attracting a crowd just short of 40,000. Casement will, of course, host GAA Ulster finals, county matches and more – but with the SSE arena limited to 11,000 spectators maximum, Casement should evolve into the city’s largest concert and events space. Is that not a legacy worth having? Can we, as a city, not aspire to an events venue of serious size and scale?

The Green and White Army (GAWA) spokesman, Gary McAllister rightly raises concerns that the delivery of an expanded Sub-Regional Stadium Programme (SRSP) needs to be part of the legacy. The original £36.2m allocation isn’t enough. Patrick Nelson estimates that £120m is more realistic. I agree, though the failure of the IFA to spend a cent of its annual €1.1m allocation from UEFA’s Hat-Trick fund on club stadia development over the past decade or more hardly breeds confidence. The non-delivery of the £36.2m SRSP ‘pot’ was scandalously botched by Stormont. Successive sports ministers from Sinn Féin and the DUP had their hands tied by a constituency carve-up ‘deal’ agreed by the then First and Deputy First ministers. Thankfully, pork-barrel politics has given way to sensible civil service ground-work and by Gerard Lawlor’s leadership as CEO at the NI Football League – plotting a course for club stadia development based on need. That, too, can only be assisted by Euro 2028.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson knows the answer to his own ‘money’ question. The UK is a currency creating state. Parliament can, by law, instruct the Bank of England to create money at a drop. That’s how covid and furlough were paid for. That's how endless wars of choice are funded. And since much of UK ‘debt’ is money that it owes itself, nobody worries too much. Unless, of course, money-creation overheats the economy and creates inflation. Current inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have nothing whatsoever to do with an over-heated economy – and everybody knows that.

Casement has a chance to be realised because it’s part of a Euro 28 that has London and Wembley as its centre-piece. The IFA was right to back it. Direct-Rule and the absence of a Stormont block gives it a chance. The timetable is aggressive, so it’s no “gimme”. The Republic’s government will make a contribution, at least for the optics. Were it left to politicians at Stormont – who wrecked the sub-regional stadia programme – could the same be said? I think we all know the answer to that one.

The imperative is simple now – Just Do It!

Mark Langhammer is Vice-Chair of Crusaders FC, Belfast and writes in a personal capacity.