According to UEFA's tournament requirements for hosting Euros games, Croke Park could well be ruled out as a potential venue.
European football's governing body state in both their Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 requirements that 'no provisional or temporary seating installations will be permitted' among stadia.
The idea that the GAA would make permanent alterations to Croker's historic Hill 16 to host a handful of games over a month-long soccer tournament seems laughable so based off that rule, GAA HQ is a non-runner unless that criteria is softened for the 2028 edition.
The bid itself between Ireland and the UK to jointly host the marquee European football tournament seems all but certain to land hosting rights by default as Turkey are seemingly set to withdraw ahead of Wednesday's deadline to apply.
Meanwhile Italy are focusing on 2032 instead and Russia were ruled out as a potential host during a wave of sanctions imposed in the wake of their invasion of Ukraine.
It leaves the bid Ireland is involved in as ‘last man standing.’
Momentum is also gathering at government level as Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin and Minister for Sport Jack Chambers are today chairing a joint Cabinet meeting that will rubber stamp the government's backing of the bid.
Government sources are extremely confident that the hosting alongside Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales will be successful.
A senior source at the Department of Tourism and Sport told the Irish Mirror that the Government’s official seal would be “a strong indicator of intent and expectation” for UEFA.
Soccer fans here were left devastated when the Euro 2020 tournament that was supposed to be jointly-staged here was postponed in 2020 because of Covid.
The disappointment was then compounded when the Government decided that it was not safe for Dublin to take its place as one of 13 host cities in the rescheduled games last Summer.
The competition did go ahead when there were still major international concerns over Covid.
The English FA came in for heavy criticism after the final was played in Wembley to a packed stadium.
There was a Covid spike directly linked to the final with NHS testing and tracing finding over 2,200 cases that could be traced back to that single match.
UEFA will formally announce the bid(s) received on April 5th and then the bid with the necessary technical detail must be lodged with the soccer governing body by next Spring.
But a source close to the Government’s bidding process told the Mirror last night that “it is looking more likely than not that the joint Uk and Ireland bid may be the sole bidder for Euro 2028.”
The hosting would be a boon for the domestic tourism industry with estimates that there would be 147,000 international visitors outside the UK coming to the tournament.
Fans will spend millions when they come here and the source said the Government will support the bid through “funding for venues, transport, security and fan zones.”
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