Casement Park has been included in the final list of 10 potential venues to host games at Euro 2028.
However, Croke Park, the biggest stadium in Ireland, won’t be used if the joint Ireland and UK bid is successful after the bid dossier was submitted to UEFA at noon on Wednesday.
The Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which will be known as the Dublin Arena due to UEFA regulations on naming rights, is included despite having a smaller capacity than Croker.
FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill explained: "In all major bid processes, you start with a short list of stadia, and this is whittled down to a final agreed list in order to give the bid the best chance of success and reflects the streamlined nature of the tournament.
"This bid started with 14 Stadia, and we now have our agreed final 10 which have been submitted.
"The Bid, with the exemption of London, is based on a ‘one city, one stadia’ principle and together we believe the list offers an array of superb stadia from across the UK and Ireland."
Yet, the decision to use the 51,711-capacity Aviva Stadium over Croke Park, with a capacity for 82,300 spectators, is sure to raise eyebrows.
Casement’s inclusion will also come as a surprise given the continued concerns about funding and the lack of a functioning Executive at Stormont.
The GAA remains optimistic that the new 34,500-capacity stadium could be fit to host games as early as 2025.
Under the original funding model, the cost of building Casement was estimated to be £77.5M with the GAA contributing £15M with £62.5M coming from local government.
Recent estimates predict the total cost could be as much as £140M, but the GAA are adamant that they won’t increase their contribution of £15M towards the project.
The other stadiums included in the final bid dossier are Wembley, Cardiff’s National Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, City of Manchester Stadium, Everton’s new stadium, St James’ Park in Newcastle, Villa Park and Hampden Park in Glasgow.
The joint bid is a venture by the English FA, Scottish FA, Welsh FA, the IFA and the FAI and Casement Park was the only Belfast venue included in the preliminary bid dossier as Windsor Park’s capacity falls short of the minimum requirements set out by UEFA.
Turkey are also bidding to host Euro 2028 and are in the running for Euro 2032 as well and UEFA will make their final decision in September.
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