It is not exactly controversial to suggest that things aren’t always easy when it comes to life in Northern Ireland. The split in the country is decades old, if not centuries, with religious and cultural reasons for the country often feeling divided.
The Troubles that began in the 1960s and lasted through until the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998 are the most obvious sign of that, but even in 2024 there remains plenty of enmity within the country. That is perhaps best shown, at least as far as this site is concerned, with the selection of Casement Park as the Northern Irish ground for the European Championship 2028.
Ground Selection
Any time the European Championship rolls around, there is a need to have a enough stadiums in place to host the matches that are going to be played during it. In the case of the 2028 Euros, it is being held jointly by England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The ten football grounds that will used to host matches were confirmed on the 12th of April 2023, with some big hitter missing from the list.
Anfield in Liverpool can’t be used because the pitch doesn’t meet the dimensions of UEFA. Manchester’s Old Trafford can’t be one of the grounds because the club can’t confirm that it will be ready in time.
@jamierob2 Abandoned Football Stadium #northernireland #ireland #urbex #abandonedplaces #abandoned #football #stadium #euro #euro2028 #casementpark
In Northern Ireland, meanwhile, there was a belief that Windsor Park would be the stadium selected to represent the country once the tournament was underway. The problem is that Windsor Park doesn’t have a capacity big enough to comply with the rules that UEFA put in place for the hosting of European Championship matches.
There was little appetite to redevelop the site to make it large enough, whereas Casement Park has been in a state of dereliction since 2021 and has had redevelopment permission in place since the July of that year, making it the more obvious choice to be upgraded to host matches in 2028.
Why There are Problems
Northern Ireland being Northern Ireland, however, there are major issues with the selection of Casement Park as the ground to host European Championship matches in four years time. The ground’s name comes from Roger Casement, an Irish revolutionary who was an Irish nationalist that the English executed during the First World War.
The stadium is, unsurprisingly when you consider the person it is named in honour of, located in a nationalist area. This means that the unionists are deeply unhappy about its selection, with protests having been held around the issue of the choice of Casement Park, its location and history.
Unionist caller to BBCNI radio this morning. Wait for it… “We’re not stupid, if Casement Park is built they’ll change the name to honour a Republican” pic.twitter.com/Jlej6dBcOW
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) July 26, 2024
Casement Park, when it was open, was the home of hurling and Gaelic football. That stands in contrast to Windsor Park, which is not only located in a unionist area of the city of Belfast but is also Northern Ireland’s national football stadium.
The fact that the capacity there of 18,500 isn’t big enough to meet UEFA’s regulations is not a good enough reason in the eyes of the objectors to see it ignored over Casement Park. A massive reason why the latter was chosen, however, is that Windsor Park was redeveloped around ten years ago to its current size, so any further redevelopment is unlikely and would be too costly.
The Plans for Casement Park
When the first redevelopment plan was put forward, a cost of around £73 million was suggested. Nowadays, however, that is sitting at more than £300 million, with Northern Ireland’s hopes of being one of the host countries at risk thanks to funding difficulties.
The stadium will need to be all but demolished and rebuilt from scratch, but there is at least enough room for a ground with a capacity of more 30,000 built, which would meet UEFA’s requirements. The funding for the rebuild was to come from several different areas, including £62.5 million from the Northern Ireland Executive and the GAA offering £15 million.
As the costs have ballooned for numerous different reasons, more and more vested interests have got involved on the funding side of things. The British government has been reluctant to commit to spending around £200 million on the stadium, given the fact that Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have repeatedly told the country that there is a £22 billion black hole in the country’s finances and that the likes of the two-child benefit cap therefore can’t be lifted.
Starmer, though, is claiming that he will push through plans to see the area redeveloped, believing that it’s important for every part of the UK to be involved in hosting the tournament in 2028.