With football now getting back to some kind of ‘normality’ after the impact of Covid, the bidding for Euro 2028 is hotting up.
Germany are hosting Euro 2024 in 10 different cities, with the qualifying draw scheduled to take place in Frankfurt on October 9.
As well as the hosts getting automatic qualification, 53 countries will compete for the 23 remaining places in the finals, though Russia will not be one of them as they are still banned after the invasion of Ukraine.
Leaping forward to Euro 2028, Turkey are competing with a joint bid from the UK and Ireland, when it comes to hosting the finals.
The preliminary dossier from each of the bids have to be submitted this month (November 2022), with the final dossier due in April 2023 before the vote next September (2023).
Today (16 November 2022) has brought news that the preliminary bid dossier for the UK and Ireland has indeed been submitted, with various media naming the sixteen stadiums that have been selected and included in the bid.
Those 16 are (cities and then club stadiums listed below)…
England
Birmingham – Aston Villa
Liverpool – Everton
London – Tottenham
London – Wembley
London – West Ham
Manchester – Man City
Manchester – Man Utd
Newcastle – Newcastle United
Sunderland – Mackems
Scotland
Glasgow – Hampden Park
Northern Ireland
Belfast – Casement Park Stadium
Republic of Ireland
Dublin – Croke Park
Dublin – Dublin Arena
Wales
Cardiff – National Stadium of Wales
So it means nine English stadiums making up the bulk of the bid, with another five spread around, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Turkey are also bidding for Euro 2032 against Italy, so the hope is that the joint UK and Ireland bid could become stronger favourites, if Turkey end up focused on that later tournament as a better, more realistic, option. With the additional carrot that 2032 is expected to see 32 countries involved in the finals in an expanded tournament, as opposed to the 24 countries currently.