The hosts of Euro 2028 will be the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland after a joint bid across the five nations was confirmed by Uefa on Tuesday.
Following a meeting of Uefa’s Executive Committee, the UK and Ireland was awarded the 2028 tournament in a rare five-association partnership,
The UK and Ireland bid delegation included six football youth ambassadors who support the development and diversity of the game as well as a presentation by the five Football Association leaders and former Wales captain Gareth Bale.
Euro 2028 will be the largest major sporting event ever held across all five nations and is set to be a commercial success, delivering record crowd numbers at famous venues.
There will be approximately three million tickets available, which is more than any previous European Championship, and with an average stadia capacity of 58,000 more fans than ever will be able to attend matches in person.
The FA also estimates that 2.5m fans will take part in Uefa’s fan festivals across the UK and Ireland during the tournament which will have a renewed focus on sustainability.
A compact and connected transport plan is being drawn up to ensure that more than 80 per cent of ticket holders are able to travel to matches by public transport and the proposed match schedule aims to reduce and limit emissions for fans attending the games.
There will also be a personal carbon footprint tracker for every spectator.
Euro 2028 is also predicted to generate socio-economic benefits of up to £2.6bn for the UK and Ireland with the bid partners already investing more than £500m - between 2019 and 2025 - to improve and upgrade grassroots facilities.
A further £45m legacy fund will be invested to develop football and create additional benefits as the tournament approaches.
Gareth Bale was part of the successful Wales delegation bidding to host Euro 2028— (REUTERS)
However, there are still issues to resolve over the next five years however with agreement still to be reached on who will fund the redevelopment of Casement Park - Northern Ireland’s host stadium.
Plans for a 34,000 stadium have been delayed by legal challenges and are further complicated by the lack of a functioning Executive at Stormont. Costs have also risen from an original estimate of £77.5m to more than £100m.
England will be involved in hosting a Euros for a third time having hosted alone in Euro 96 and were one of 11 countries involved in staging the continent-wide Euro 2020.
All five nations are expected to go through qualification for the tournament, with Uefa reserving two host nation places for any of the teams which do not make it on merit.
