Ambition for Euro 2028
London, United Kingdom, AFP. The United Kingdom and Ireland have ruled out submitting their bid to host the 2030 World Cup and will focus on a joint bid to host Euro 2028, their football associations announced on Monday.
The associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland have concluded that the European Championship would be a better option than the World Cup after a feasibility study funded by the UK government.
The five federations said in a statement: “The five federations decided to focus only on the official bid to organize the 2028 European Championship, and decided not to submit a bid to host the 2030 World Cup.”
“Organizing a European Championship provides a similar return on investment, since the cost of organizing a European Championship is much lower and the benefits can be obtained sooner,” the note continued.
The 2030 World Cup bid has sparked criticism in the UK, after England's unilateral attempts to host the 2006 and 2018 editions failed.
England hosted the 1996 European Championship, while the cities of Glasgow, London and Dublin hosted the 2020 continental championship matches, which were organized jointly with other European stadiums and were postponed to the summer of 2021 due to the epidemic. In addition, the semi-finals and final were played at Wembley Stadium.
Problems caused by the crowd of fans attending the Euro 2020 final at Wembley on 11 July last year do not appear to have deterred UEFA from staging major events at the London stadium: the opening match of the “final” between the Italian and European champions. The South American champion, Argentina, is scheduled to take place in June.
Abandoning the British nomination leaves the way open for the team formed by Spain and Portugal to try to organize the 2030 World Cup.
Applicants interested in hosting Euro 2028 must confirm their interest by March 23 and bids will be announced on April 5.
The host country or countries for the tournament will be determined in September 2023 by UEFA.
The process initiated by the European body, unlike the project to organize the World Cup every two years, does not take into account a possible revision of the international calendar from 2024, and assumes that the summer of 2028 will not be occupied by the world. cup.
(Photo: AFP)
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