{"id":136335,"date":"2025-11-12T21:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/136335\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:09:07","slug":"aviva-stadium-to-host-seven-games-at-euro-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/136335\/","title":{"rendered":"Aviva Stadium to host seven games at Euro 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will host seven games at Euro 2028, including a last-16 clash and a quarter-final, with the Republic of Ireland set to play all their group games at Lansdowne Road if they qualify directly.<\/p>\n

The tournament, which had its official launch in London tonight, will be co-hosted by England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n

Casement Park in Belfast was stripped of matches due to funding delays, leading to doubts the stadium would be completed in time.<\/p>\n

Last year, FAI chief executive David Courell said that Euros matches originally slated for Casement Park might still be held in Ireland, but only at the Aviva<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At that time the Aviva was down to host four group games and two knockout games.<\/p>\n

At tonight’s launch it was confirmed that Dublin will get an extra match: five group games plus two knockout fixtures.<\/p>\n

The big hope for Irish supporters is that the Boys in Green will be part of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Republic of Ireland last reached a Euros in 2016, when they made it to the last 16 under the guidance of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane.<\/p>\n

UEFA has previously confirmed that places at the tournament will be reserved for the two best-ranked host nations who don’t automatically qualify.<\/p>\n

That means if two of England, Wales and Scotland reach the finals, then Ireland are guaranteed to be there, regardless of how they fare in qualification.<\/p>\n

However, qualifying directly does come with a reward, as host nations would get to play all their group games in front of their own fans. Dublin will host two Group B and three Group E games. Ireland would go into Group E if they qualified directly. If they won the group, their round-16 game would be in Dublin. If they came second it would be at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.<\/p>\n

“We all know that we had hoped to have Casement, that’s not the case now so Ireland picks up a game and we obviously get a quarter-final,” said Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan.<\/p>\n

“Our vision with UEFA is around vision and legacy. We have to make sure that we build a legacy for soccer in Ireland.<\/p>\n

“Ireland is ready to play its part in delivering a world-class tournament that will excite fans and energise communities across the country.<\/p>\n

“The Government is investing up to \u20ac93m to make it happen and I am confident the return will far exceed that, in jobs, tourism and pride.”<\/p>\n

At their AGM last Saturday, the FAI detailed how it has “rephased” its debt<\/a> having reached an agreement with its three main lenders – UEFA, FIFA and Bank of Ireland – to extend the timeframe for repayments.<\/p>\n

The FAI says it is looking to have debts (which currently stand at \u20ac38m) cleared by 2036. Key to that ambition is the financial windfall that will come from being a co-host of the Euros in three years’ time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will host seven games at Euro 2028, including a last-16 clash and a quarter-final, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-136335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}