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HERE’S ONE EUROPEAN away trip from which we will come home with a win.
An FAI delegation landed in Geneva yesterday, meeting with executives from their four neighbouring associations before they present their bid to co-host Euro 2028 to Uefa’s 18-person Executive Committee.
The result, happily, is a foregone conclusion.
Turkey, once the sole competing bid, have instead switched their attention to Euro 2032, which they will co-host with Italy. The Irish/UK bid is therefore unopposed, so there is no losing this.
The five associations initially came together to explore co-hosting the 2030 World Cup, before switching their energies to Euro 2028 as they believed it was much more winnable. Whereas a Euros bid is subject to a vote by Uefa’s ExCo, a World Cup bid must be voted upon by all in 211 of Fifa’s national associations, many of whom the English FA could not rely upon for support. The argument made to Uefa will be persuasive: after the enormous financial blow of Covid, a Euros hosted primarily in England is a guaranteed money-spinner.
The FAI and their bid partners must still go through the formalities of a presentation today, however, as it is the first time the Uefa ExCo members will have seen the full details of the bid. The presentation will begin at around 10am at Uefa HQ in Nyon, which is a short train ride from Geneva. Everyone involved in the Irish/UK bid ran through rehearsals at their hotel last night, with Gareth Bale flying in to sprinkle some star dust in the presentation room.
CEO Jonathan Hill is expected to speak on behalf of the FAI, and he was met in Switzerland yesterday by president Gerry McAnaney, chief operating officer David Courrell, and director of communications and public relations Cathal Dervan.
Also part of the presentation will be a representative of youth football from each of the five associations, with Shamrock Rovers underage player Ade Solanke – a student on their TY Ashfield College programme – here for the FAI.
There won’t be any political figures present, with Uefa preferring the presence of football officials only. Political figures have recorded messages as part of the presentation, however.
Many of the details of the Irish/UK bid have already been agreed. Games will be played in 10 different grounds across the five associations: the Aviva Stadium in Dublin; a redeveloped Casement Park in Belfast; Hampden Park in Glasgow; the Principality Stadium in Cardiff; and Wembley, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, St James’ Park, Villa Park, Ethiad Stadium, and Everton’s new, as-yet-unfinished stadium by the Liverpool docks.
It’s expected that Dublin will host six games: four group games, a last-16 tie, and a quarter-final. The final will be at Wembley.
Casement Park, meanwhile, will host five games: four group games and a last-16 tie. The ground’s status is the bid’s biggest question mark, but all parties are committed to ensuring it is redeveloped in time for the tournament. Casement would not have made the final list of proposed stadia if there had not been a firm political commitment to its redevelopment. Should it not be completed in time, then Northern Ireland face the embarrassment of going down as the tournament co-hosts who did not host a tournament game, as neither Windsor Park nor Ravenhill meet Uefa’s minimum 30,000 capacity requirement.
The other issue to be resolved is qualification. Uefa are not prepared to guarantee all five co-hosts a place at the 24-team tournament, and tomorrow’s presentation will include a proposal to Uefa around qualification. It is expected that the Irish/UK bid will propose ring-fencing two spots at the tournament for co-hosts who do not qualify via the traditional means. The bid team want these spots to be allocated on the basis of qualifying – so to the two highest-ranked sides who don’t qualify – but that is all subject to Uefa’s imprimatur. Uefa may prefer to involve Nations League performance when it comes to deciding on who deserves a spot. A final decision on qualifying is not expected to be made by tomorrow.
Victory will be ratified tomorrow, however, with a ceremony to take place at around 11am Irish time tomorrow. At that point the back-slapping and the cork-popping will begin, confirming that after a failed bid for Euro 2008 and the force majeure that thwarted Euro 2020, Ireland will finally co-host games at a European Championships. Having successfully sold the idea to Uefa, the FAI must then sell it to their own constituencies, and prove that a six-game hosting commitment can leave some lasting, tangible benefits.
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Imagine how much it would hurt these gangs if you were to legalise cannabis?
Imagine how you would hurt these gangs if you were to put them into prison!
This is window dressing and smells like a PR stunt. Why target soft drugs when the country is over run with much more soul destroying drugs.
Petty hash dealers are not problem.
Hope the keep the pressure up on these vile s(umbags, make it impossible to operate.
30kgs of cannabis would hardly be handled by petty hash dealers.
The big dangerous gangs are dealing with these volumes of cannabis. I completely agree that legalising it is the only way to really hurt these people
Tweety it could be 300 tons of a drug that does very little harm verse drugs that destroys people, families, children born addicted and creating generations of zombies.
Let’s tackle the drugs that do damage first.
I think the point is that removing this as a revenue source or an entry into illegal drugs would have a knock-on effect negating the harder drugs.
If you could grow it legally / buy it at the chemist you won’t end up in debt to some gangster and forced to get into crime / become tempted to try other things
Not sure just legalisation would do the job, still would require Garda resources . Where it is legal there are still huge criminal profits from selling it underground. Sure don’t we have gangs making a mint from illegal cigarettes and taking up Garda resources; and they are legal.
While it’s great to see the Gardai making these seizures and hurt organised crime, it would be far more effective to legalize cannabis.
Sean of course it would look at the resources it would release from the guards, reduce the criminal element, reduce gang land murder, increase tax revenue, help regulate the drug, having cannabis that is not laced with dangerous products when sold trough proper channels, we could go on.
It is so wildly used I smell it in the streets in a very casual way, so saying legalisation cause an huge increase in use, we are beyond that point
They are doing alot of big busts lately. Keep up the good work
Aww man. That’s a lot of people’s weekends ruined!! Legalise.
Hardly ruined. Might just have to use a different dealer further away. More like slightly inconvenienced.
Just legalise it already… The country who started the war on drugs “The US of A” has at least 12 states where it’s legal now. Billions raised in taxes which funds health care.
Waste.
I’m sure the Gardai will dispose of the haul in the appropriate manner
There hoes any hope of twinning with north korea. Reputation ruined. No one likes a drugs scandal.
Cigarettes are legal and that’s a huge black market huge for certain criminals. Not that simple I think.
Only because of the severe tax on them.
The point is that it’s a huge source of income for the criminals.
If it was legal, the margins wouldn’t be anywhere near what they are now.
License & regulate it’s sale.
Punish those caught selling without a license severely.
Or, continue to not regulate it or (really) punish anyone caught selling it.
Market is worth around half a BILLION, someone is always going to fill a demand that size. We will never stop it, and efforts put in to seize the minuscule amount they do could be put to better use elsewhere.
It is a complete no brainer.
Good work Gardaí. I hope we can one day rid our country of the terrible scourge of cannabis.
#drugsareformugs
#smokersarejokers
I take it that you’re joking.
“Drug seizures play a key role in targeting the livelihoods of criminals and disrupting their networks, as well as protecting communities.”
Actually drug seizures increase risks and as a consequence hugely increase profits for criminal elements that will always be willing to engage in horrendous acts for money. We won’t ever control the huge demand there is for mind altering substances, we have to regulate the supply instead.
Definitly agree, at the end of the day the high up crim who brought this into the country will already have gotten or will still get his money from this drug runner or distributer. Legalise canabis,tackle the harder drugs. Gards might have to actually work a bit a harder then! Any joe so can find canabis walking around dublin, easy to follow someone after thats not police work
The market for cannabis in Ireland is worth upwards of €500m a year.
So yeah, I’m sure €200k is going to put a great big dent in that.
That’s the same stash they found last week in limerick but it makes them look good eh…
Still to be analysed? You mean roll a few spliffs and see how good it was
Some load of camel shit there.
Camel shit.
Old rubber.
Engine oil.
Glass.
Stoners will smoke any old shit.
have your say