NORTHERN Ireland’s chances of appearing in Euro 2028 have been dealt a blow after Casement Park’s removal as a host venue for the UEFA soccer tournament.
Casement Park was named as one of ten venues across Ireland and the UK to host matches during the tournament. However, in September the British government dropped the bombshell that it would not part finance the rebuild of the Andersonstown stadium which has been waiting redevelopment since 2013 – ending any chance of Casement being built in time for Euro 2028. That decision was welcomed by many supporters of Northern Ireland who were hostile to the idea of watching Northern Ireland matches at the GAA venue in the heart of West Belfast.
However, that decision now means that Northern Ireland will miss out on a backdoor opportunity of playing in the tournament in four years’ time.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday, Football Association of Ireland CEO David Courell said: “To be clear Northern Ireland won’t quality for an automatic slot if they are not a host nation.
“We are having conversations with Uefa but the working assumption is all of us (Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales) will go through qualification and if we are unsuccessful in qualifying on merit, then there will be automatic slots in reserve – but that has yet to be ratified by UEFA.”
He added: “I won’t go into the details of it, but what I will say is that we are very confident that we will feature in Euro 2028.
“We will have the benefit of a highly increased likelihood of qualifying if we don’t go through on merit.”
He added that UEFA will reduce the number of stadiums to nine now that Casement Park is no longer feasible, which means that the Irish government’s push for Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork or Croke Park in Dublin as a replacement venue for Casement won’t be pursued by UEFA. Euro 2028 games in Ireland will be played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
