As England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland prepare to come together for a joint bid to host Euro 2028 there remains the hope of hosting some games on Merseyside.
But while Liverpool 's home of Anfield may soon be the fifth largest in England when work on the Anfield Road End is completed, it won't be on the final list of names to host games should UEFA give the green light to the UK and Ireland bid due to the pitch being smaller than the fixed dimensions of 105m by 68m that host stadiums must have.
While that seemingly rules out the Reds, as it has also done for Chelsea for similar reasons, the potentially major economic benefits that hosting games in major tournaments can bring could still be delivered after it emerged in a report in the Times that Everton's 52,888 stadium build at Bramley-Moore Dock remained among the list of contenders.
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Everton don't move into their new stadium until the start of the 2024/25 season, and any stadium hosting UEFA competitions has to have been open for two years prior according to UEFA directives in order for the stadiums to have been stress tested and robustly scrutinised ahead of a major tournament.
Cities have been invited to bid to host games in Euro 2028, with the potential of hosting such a major tournament that attracts the interest of hundreds of millions worldwide offering huge potential to help hand local economies a boost.
As well as Everton's new stadium, also appearing on the list of potential host cities are Wembley, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the London Stadium, Villa Park, Milton Keynes Dons' Stadium MK, Old Trafford, the Etihad Stadium, Sunderland’s Stadium of Light and Newcastle United’s St James’ Park. The Aviva Stadium and Croke Park in Ireland remain in consideration, while Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will have a stadium each should the bid be successful.
The potential hosting of games at Everton's new stadium would, first and foremost, be providing a major boost to the local economy through the increased footfall, spotlight and tourism that would arrive as a result of hosting such an occasion. But it would also provide some revenue benefit to Everton and any other club who wins through in the bidding process to host games at Euro 2028.
According to UEFA guidelines a stadium rental fee is to be paid to the owners and operators of the stadiums where the games take place, with some stadiums owned by governing bodies, others local authorities and others privately owned by the clubs themselves, as would be the case with Everton.
Bidding cities present costs to UEFA for such things as stadium rental and operating expenditures which will then be reviewed by UEFA ahead of them making a decision.
According to the Euro 2024 bidding literature: "The UEFA bid evaluation group will compare and validate the submitted proposals and check the "financial feasibility" (over-/under-pricing) of the stadium rental fee and operating expenditures. To do so, UEFA will calculate its own "reference estimate" per Stadium based on previous on-site experiences and data available. If the cost proposals of the proposed stadium is too high compared to UEFA's estimate or if there is a risk of "underfinancing" of the required provisions, UEFA will review the financial proposal jointly with the relevant Bidder during the evaluation period.
"The validation of cost proposals will be done individually stadium by stadium and in reference to the particular UEFA estimate. The purpose of the validation process is not to identify the cheapest stadium cost proposal but to ensure that "promised" provisions are not underfinanced or overpaid."
The operating expenditures fall under UEFA's 'overlay requirements' from host cities. Such things as extra security, ICT infrastructure, hospitality, stadium entertainment, marketing and sponsor activities, ticketing and TV and media services are among the list of things that the operators of the stadiums must take upon themselves.
There will be limited scope for additional commercial revenue for Everton and other clubs who may host tournament games, with UEFA selling their own commercial rights packages that would have branding around the stadiums in place of the visibility of the corporate partners of the clubs whose stadium the games are taking place in. The same goes for revenues generated from merchandise and food and beverage sales.
"UEFA reserves the right to operate the concessions," it was explained to bidders ahead of Euro 2024. "However, UEFA may decide to attribute the rights to a third party. In addition, UEFA reserves all pouring rights at the stadium for its commercial partners to exercise at the relevant concessionaire points-of-sales at the stadium, in relation to any relevant product category."
The UK and Ireland are facing competition from Turkey for the 2028 bid, although Turkey are also in the bidding process for the 2032 tournament against Italy.
Should the UK and Ireland bid be successful it would provide a major boost to each of the host cities, and for the clubs that own the grounds that are chosen it would also provide a financial benefit, albeit not able to tap into the kind of revenue streams that they enjoy on a normal Premier League matchday.
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