Dublin selected to host Euro 2020 matches

The FAI and Dublin City will host part of a major football championship - Euro 2020 - for the first time after the bid to stage three group games and one from the round of 16 was successful in Geneva .

Inevitably, there were losers in the process too. As they feared they might, the Welsh were amongst the bidders to lose out with the Millennium stadium appearing to have been squeezed on geographical grounds in a process which resulted in Glasgow getting a “standard package” like Dublin while London were awarded the semi-finals and final, all of which will be staged at Wembley.

Dublin’s success, though, was achieved on the back of a solid proposal that benefitted from the experience much the same bid team had of attracting then staging the Europa League three years ago.

It had been well reviewed by Uefa’s technical assessment team whose critical appraisals of some rivals appeared to leave Dublin in a very strong position but due to the many political considerations the outcome remained uncertain until the Executive Committee’s decision was finally announced to an audience of anxious officials from across Europe.

“I’d like to thank Michel Platini and the Uefa Executive Committee for their decision to award this honour to Ireland against strong competition from all over Europe,” said FAI chief executive, John Delaney, shortly after the decision was made public.

“In 2020 the Association will be entering its 100th year and this once off opportunity to host part of the European finals at our home stadium will provide a major boost for Irish football and the country as a whole. We could not have done it on our own and I thank our partners, Dublin City Council, the Government and all of the organisations who put in tremendous work to win it for Ireland.

The city’s Lord Mayor, Christy Burke also welcomed the move, observing: “Dublin City Council is delighted with today’s announcement. I look forward to welcoming visitors to Dublin from all over the world, to what will undoubtedly be a wonderful sporting occasion.”

And for the government, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring said he wanted to “congratulate the FAI, Dublin City Council and their partners on the successful bid. It’s a marvellous opportunity for our nation to be part of one of the world’s top sporting events and a fantastic opportunity for Irish football fans to enjoy such a prestigious event on their own home soil.”

Amongst the more interesting other choices made, both Saint Petersburg and Baku will get to host group games and quarter-finals. The latter had always been a strong contender because of the resources available to it and the promise of a new €700 million stadium.

But despite its technical strength, the Russian bid had seemed far less of a certainty given the international political tensions surrounding the country and the fact that it will stage a part of the World Cup in 2018 and so seemed a relatively easy one to omit on this occasion.

Most of those who missed out must surely have expected their fate from the point at which the technical assessments were published last week but those behind the Stockholm bid are, along with the counterparts in Wales, bound to be disappointed.

For the FAI, its partners in Dublin City Council and the Dublin bid’s other stakeholders there is some work to be done over the coming years but with the stadium and most of the infrastructure already firmly in place there appears to be little enough that could go wrong. From Uefa’s perspective, it certainly must have looked a very safe bet.

For the national team, things are a little less clear cut. Uefa intend to try to facilitate host countries getting to play some of their games in the tournament on home soil, most likely two group matches with the possibility of a knockout match too.

But there is no automatic place at the event for those who stage it and, even if Tourism Ireland might, professionally speaking, see the bright side, missing out would be more painful than ever for the players and their supporters.

Venues

Final and semi-finals: London.

Quarter-finals and three group matches: Baku, Munich, Rome and St Petersburg

Second round and three group games: Copenhagen, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Dublin, Bilbao, Budapest, Brussels and Glasgow.