Belfast City Council sets aside £4 million as part of bid to host UEFA Euro 2028

Deserted streets in Belfast city centre as Northern Ireland entered a new extended lockdown on Boxing Day whilst the number of coronavirus cases remain high. Picture by: Peter Morrison/PA Archive/PA Images
Belfast City Council has agreed to set aside £4 million as part of its bid to host UEFA Euro 2028 Credit: Press Association

  • By Michael Kenwood, Local Democracy Reporter

Belfast councillors have agreed to set aside £4 million from city coffers as part of a bid to host UEFA Euro 2028.

In a private committee level meeting away from the public and press, elected members approved the future allocation of £4m toward the costs of hosting the UEFA European Football Championships in 2028, as part of the UK and Republic of Ireland bid.

Minutes from the Belfast City Council Strategic Policy and Resources meeting reveal councillors noted the details of the officer report and gave approval for the council to sign the legally binding host city guarantees associated with the bid.

The minutes stated councillors “granted approval for BCC to act as the lead on all matters (as far as council responsibility lies) associated with the host city requirements, including governance, budget, marketing, volunteering, mobility, transport, including associated risk.”

The minutes added: “The Director of Economic Development provided the Committee with an update regarding a UK and Ireland bid to host the European Football Championships in 2028, and sought approval to sign a number of legal binding documents relating to Belfast potentially being a host city for five group matches during the European Football Championships in 2028.

“The final bid is to be submitted by the central bid team to UEFA by April 12, 2023. The central bid team required all regional final bid documents and associated guarantees and contracts with them no later than March 24, to allow for final collation and review prior to submission.”

The tournament is scheduled to be played from June to July 2028. The host, which will be either a shared bid from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, or Turkey, is expected to be chosen in September 2023.

Countries must submit a bid with 10 stadiums, one of which must have 60,000 seats, one of which (preferably two) must have 50,000 seats, four of which must have 40,000 seats and three of which must have 30,000 seats.

For Belfast, the proposed stadium is Casement Park, with redevelopment to take the stadium to a proposed capacity of 34,578. Other cities involved in the bid are Dublin, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff and London. There was a shortlist of 14 cities in this bid; this was reduced to 10 in the bid this month.

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