Welcome to Casement Park

Five matches of the 2028 European Championship could be played in a currently abandoned stadium. This is Casement Park, a facility located in Belfast, unused since 2013, which, through a substantial renovation project, will be transformed into a 35,000-seat stadium in line with UEFA standards. The renovation project is the only real reason that allowed Northern Ireland to join the joint bid of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland to host the tournament. UEFA regulations require that for such competitions, facilities must have a minimum of 30,000 seats. Currently, in Northern Ireland, there are no structures of this size: the largest football stadium is Windsor Park in Belfast, with just over 18,000 seats, where Northern Ireland plays all its home games.

Built in the years immediately after the end of the Second World War from materials previously used in the war industry, it quickly became the venue for major national sporting events as well as political rallies linked to the Northern Irish independence movements. At the start of the new millennium, Casement Park was refurbished and floodlit in 2006 to allow matches to be played at night. However, this did not prevent the stadium from not being used ten years later, as the last sporting event was held on 10 June 2013. This long neglect has driven up the estimated renovation costs, which are now necessary if the bid for Euro2028 is not to be lost.

The costs for the renovation work, according to the latest estimates, hover around £168 million, but there is still no specific date for the start of the work. The last project envisioned construction starting in 2022 with completion set for 2025. However, 2023 is about to end, and there has been no intervention so far. Casement Park is currently an abandoned concrete relic that has not hosted any sporting events for over a decade. To make matters worse, from 2013 to the present, several redevelopment projects have failed, escalating the costs of any renovation work. In summary, on paper, UEFA has accepted Casement Park's candidacy, but it is also ready to request its exclusion if it realizes that the redevelopment work cannot be completed by 2028.

There is another problem: technically, Casement Park is not a football stadium. It is, in fact, the most famous facility for Gaelic football in Northern Ireland. For those unfamiliar with this sport, Gaelic football combines soccer and rugby. The facility is owned by the Gaelic Athletic Association, the federation that manages and promotes Gaelic football. Allocating funds to Casement Park for one of the major football events - despite the facility being intended exclusively for another sport's events - has led to public protest by the Official Northern Ireland Supporters' Clubs, the official association of football fans in Northern Ireland. The Northern Irish Football Association has stated that there is no way to increase the capacity of Windsor Park through renovation work. Therefore, Casement Park remains the only option for Northern Ireland to host the Euros, hoping that this dilapidated arena can transform into an architectural gem in time.