Hosting the Euro 2028 football tournament would provide a huge opportunity to promote Wales to the world while having strong governance and a valued brand are vital in attracting commercial investment, said chief executive of the Football Association of Wales (FAW) Noel Mooney.
Addressing a St David’s Day ACCA Wales event, Irishman Mr Mooney said that while the Welsh team didn’t achieve the aim of getting out of its group at last year’s World Cup in Qatar, the tournament proved invaluable off the pitch in promoting Wales, while also generating significant new partnership opportunities for the FAW.
Mr Mooney said: “When I started with the FAW 14 months ago our management team was nine guys and one woman. Now it is five and four and I can absolutely promise you we make much better decisions because of that diversity around the table, although we don’t have quotas and it is the right person for the role.
“In terms of what we do if you don’t have the governance and structures right, then the substance just isn’t there. What allows me to lead an organisation that is very agile, and one that I hope represents a very confident, progressive and creative Wales, is only allowable because our governance is right... so that is absolutely crucial. And to get that right then people who love football have to sometimes step aside to let people through who can bring football to the next level of development.”
On its commercial activities the chief executive said: “What we try to do is to build a brand that makes selling superfluous, so we are not chasing after sponsors all the time. We do very little chasing in this regard and thankfully in the last few months we have had quite a few sponsors come to us and say they like our values and what we represent, can we partner with you? That is really nice to see in them wanting a transfer of our values back to them. However, that puts responsibility on our shoulders to keep on doing the right thing.”
He praised the roles played by both the UK and Welsh governments in working alongside the FAW during the World Cup to promote Wales globally.
Mr Mooney said: "I have to say from a soft power perspective both governments (Welsh and UK) did a tremendous job. The First Minister (Mark Drakeford) got some criticism here for going to Qatar, but he was fantastic and full on with literally meeting after meeting representing Wales in the region and trying to get across our values. So, while on the pitch we didn’t achieve our objective, which was to get out of the group, we shined on the world stage as a nation. We also got to meet lots of companies looking to strike partnerships with us because of our values.”
The Wales men’s team will soon embark on its qualification for the next European Championship tournament that will take place in Germany next year. Mr Mooney said: “Our target on the pitch is to qualify (men’s team) for Germany 2024. Germany is obviously an economic powerhouse and hopefully we have more of a lead in time than the World Cup (due to the delayed play-off game against Ukraine), and use that opportunity to really connect with German companies.”
The FAW is part of a joint bid with the football associations of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland, to host the Euro 2028 tournament. If successful games would be played at stadia across all five nations, including the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. There could also be potential for allowing up to two of any the five teams that failed to qualify automatically to play in the tournament.
Mr Mooney said: “We have to submit our joint bid on April 12th. The decision will then be made in October and we are up against Turkey. This is something we would love to bring to Cardiff and host the opening match at a magnificent stadium (Principality) in the city centre with a global spotlight on the capital and Wales.”
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