Irish FA chief executive Patrick Nelson insists Northern Ireland will play a full part and won't be “along for the ride” after it was confirmed the five home nations are staging a joint bid to host Euro 2028.
After scrapping plans to bid for the 2030 World Cup, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will bid for the European Championships in six years time.
Turkey are also interested in hosting Euro 2028 - the third largest sporting event in the world - while Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia have already discussed a joint submission.
The closing date for bid registration is March 23 with an official announcement on all of the candidates due on April 5 and a decision expected in late 2023.
Windsor Park and Ulster Rugby’s Ravenhill home both have capacities of approximately 18,000 and that means they both fall short of the 30,000 required to host tournament games.
However, the planned redevelopment of Casement Park into a 34,500 arena may offer the opportunity to host a number of fixtures here and the IFA remains in close contact with the GAA.
Nelson said: "We are absolutely keen to play a full part and we want to host games in Northern Ireland
"We speak to the GAA on a regular basis - I probably speak to Brian (McAvoy, GAA CEO) every two weeks if not every week - so we keep each other up to date on a lot of issues.
"Nothing’s ruled in or out at this point other than we definitely want to host games in Northern Ireland.
"We’re not along for the ride so we’ll be talking to everybody that we need to, going forward.
"We know we've got to work with primarily government partners really to make sure we have a stadium that is capable of hosting matches.”
Nelson confirmed that the IFA will continue to work towards securing £36m of regional stadia funding allocated for local football stadiums.
"We have some regional funding which hopefully is still in the pipeline," he said. "We’ll be working with the government in Northern Ireland to make sure that comes through, but we’re very keen to host games, clearly."
While Euro 2028 is set to be expanded from 24 to 32 teams, it isn’t yet known if all five host nations here would secure automatic qualification if the tournament bid is successful.
Nelson said: "The Euros is such a fantastic tournament and we’d all love to qualify automatically.
“If it’s a 24 team tournament that’s 51 games, if it’s a 32 team tournament, that’s 63 games and we’re pretty confident as a five-nation group we’d be able to handle either of those scenarios.
"Performances on the pitch are what matters when it comes to qualification and we’ll have those discussions in some detail with UEFA in terms of whether there are any host places.”
An extensive feasibility study has been carried out on a potential bid and on balance the five associations have confirmed they are in support of bidding for Euro 2028.
An Irish FA statement read: “The five associations have decided to focus solely on an official bid to host UEFA EURO 2028 and have agreed not to bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
“Hosting a UEFA EURO offers a similar return on investment, with the European tournament carrying a far lower delivery cost and the potential of the benefits being realised sooner.
“It would be an honour and a privilege to collectively host UEFA EURO 2028 and to welcome all of Europe.
“We believe the UK and the Republic of Ireland can offer UEFA and European football something special in 2028 – a compact and unique five-way hosting collaboration that will provide a great experience for the teams and the fans.
“We continue to collaborate with our Government Partners of the UK and Ireland about the next steps.”
The FAI in Dublin has already spoken with the GAA and both the Aviva Stadium and Croke Park are in consideration for hosting matches if the Euro 2028 bid is successful.
