Wales, Scotland and Ireland bid to host after France

Don't see why the stadium issue should be a problem - between Cardiff, Swansea's ground, Hampden, Ibrox, Celtic Park, and Dublin there must surely be enough? In fact probably more 50,000+ stadia than any other single country could boast?

Only sticking point might be having 3 host countries all presumably demanding a place in the finals. Although, by 2020, with 24 qualifiers, you'd expect 2 if not all of these 3 to qualify by right anyway, so maybe that's less of an issue as well.

Definite non-starter for me. The problem is the concentration of these stadia in just a few cities. Ireland can only offer Dublin as a venue, whether it's with just the new Lansdowne Road or with Croke Park; Scotland can only offer Glasgow, unless Murrayfield is an option; Wales can offer Cardiff and Swansea. That's just four, possibly five, cities to host 24 countries. That would mean an awful lot of fans gathering in the one city at any time. UEFA are fussy about this, and I can only imagine their position on this being more strict with 24 teams there rather than 16. For Euro 2004, Portugal had two Lisbon stadia and two Oporto stadia, but there were six other venues. The shared events of 2000 & 2008 had four cities for each host. I can't conceive how the Celtic tournament could operate without every city being used every second day.

That's an interesting point. Although you'd have thought even just 4 major cities like that (all tourist attractions in their own right with international airports) would be right up UEFA's street.

Let's face it, if this bid isn't going to satisfy UEFA, they shouldn't have ever made it 24 teams (but then almost everyone said that from the start).

A fair point, but what stadium capacity does UEFA require? If Swansea is OK, then (according to wiki) Pittodrie should be too as it has a larger capacity. Rugby Park and the Racecourse- which has hosted internationals-aren't all that far behind either, and I dare say the respective FAs would put some investment in where necessary.

They're wasting their time. The Euro 2008 bid showed clearly that the "too many stadia in too few cities" issue is an insurmountable problem as far as UEFA are concerned.

UEFA are only interested in the Celtic nations bidding for this if it means they can use our involvement to squeeze more cash out of whichever bid does eventually win (England or Spain or Italy or whoever). That and they like being wined and dined at the FAI, SFA and FAW's expense.

1974ddr wrote:


Thinking back to the last three Euros, I reckon Charleroi, Arnhem, Bruges and Liege in 2000; every venue bar Sporting, Benfica & Porto's grounds in 2004; and every venue outside of Vienna & Basle in 2008 couldn't have been much more than 30k capacities. Therefore, a revamped Pittodrie, Rugby Park or Racecourse Ground could surely be suitable. I'm not sure that this is part of the plan for the host nations though.

I just can't see UEFA seriously considering three automatic qualifiers, even with 24 teams.

Does Aberdeen or Swansea have anything like the hotel space needed? This is important to UEFA, they were already concerned about the number of hotel beds available in Ukraine, which has now lead to supply and demand based price gouging.

It's been suggested that the bid has been encouraged by UEFA. But I would be suspicious that is just so they have a semblance of choice. Only having the Turks bidding and that being rubber-stamped is not a great PR move. But a Scotland/Wales/Ireland bid weighed against a Turkish one is surely going to lose.

Janik beat me to the punch there, I was just about to say that hotels might be as problematic area as any with such a bid.

For many years in the 80s and 90s Rangers tried to get a major European Final hosted at Ibrox. The stadium was deemed one of the very best in Europe, but the bid repeatedly failed because of insufficient hotel beds. To be a little more precise, lack of 4 and 5 star hotel beds for the visiting dignitaries.

I actually don't think the situation had changed all that much by 2002 when the government did a deal to get the CL Final to Hampden, just so they could in part justify it's existence and the money spent on it.

That said, I would be curious to know how many hotel beds there are of that standard in Donetsk. I am sure I read somewhere that the city only had around 2000 at the time the Euros were awarded to the Ukraine.

Hotel rooms ARE UEFAs big big thing.

Sunderland lost out to Seville for the Europa thingy final (Porto-Celtic) because of the lack of hotel rooms within 30ish miles of the ground. A stadium extension was lined up to increase capacity etc etc. But "No Rooms, No Final".

The three Celtic lads I know who went to Seville slept on the grass in a park. Far easier to do in southern Spain than NE England temperature wise Id imagine.

I wish the FAW would drop out. It hasn't got much money and I would rather see it used on improving grass roots coaching and getting Wales to the level where we can qualify on merit. With the best will in the world, the Racecourse shouldn't be increased presently either. All this is especially the case when it is probably going to be a failed bid.

Janik wrote:


Aberdeen has one of the most transient populations in Europe and so loads of hotels. I'm not sure Pittodrie is a big enough ground though. Aberdeen are planning a new stadium although I'm not sure if it is realistic in the current economic climate.
Anyway, that aside it's pretty clear our countries are simply too small to do this, even clubbing together we're struggling for more than 4 realistic host cities currently. Could we borrow Newcastle and not tell UEFA where it is I wonder.

Glasgow has three suitable venues but of course that's the problem with the Scotland bid- they are all in Glasgow. Apart from being a logistical, accomodation and policing nightmare UEFA would not go for three venues in the same city, two maximum as they did with Lisbon in Euro 2004. Clearly Murrayfield could be used but that still only gives three venues from the largest country of the Celtic nations.

And besides as Bored of Education says about the FAW, I would rather see the SFA and Scottish Executive invest in grass roots football and sport than pissing the investment up a big three week corporate rope. If the post Euro 2004 Portuguese lesson is anything to go by, I don't think Aberdeen would be grateful for or could afford having an enormodome white elephant in place of Pittodrie after the Euros.

The FAW has just put some money towards the Fred Keenor statue that is going outside our City's stadium. Eric the Red, late of this parish, complained that his local club has just found asbestos in their roof which will need £7000 to repair. As he mentioned, he would rather the statue money go towards his and other clubs expenses. I have just linked this idiocy to him. I expect I will hear his head exploding from here

Wouldn't single country bids to stage the U-21s, or the Womens' finals, be more realistic? We did the Mens' u-19 in 2005 and it went OK. I can't remember a single riot, collapsing grandstand or organisational scandal.

There are certainly issues behind the "Celtic" bid, but what goes in their favour is that the only other countries who have so far expressed an interest are Turkey (who are also bidding for the 2020 Olympics) and Georgia. Dependent on how things go they may win it by default. That, or UEFA may re-open the application process so Germany, Spain, Italy or England can host it.

After the Portugal 2004 big was accepted, UEFA changed the rules so that you could only have one city with two venues, every other venue had to have one. With the 24-team Euros needing 10 stadia, and therefore nine cities, Scotland may wish they hadn't proposed a 24-team finals in the first place.

Too right UEFA are obsessed with fucking hotels - Romanian League Champions Otelul Galati had to play their 3 home CL group games in fucking Bucharest, about 200km or more away because of their fucking obsession with hotels. Cunts.

Anyway, if it's cities that's the problem perhaps the Celtic bid should go for the World Cup - FIFA obviously have no such issues given that in 2022 all the games will take place in one city

How many stadium seats are actually needed, for some of the earlier round matches? If you dragged Edinburgh into the equation, Tynecastle has just over 17k capacity now, and Easter Road 20k, but if they were used for some smaller round matches it opens up a lot more hotel space. Not that Edinburgh to Glasgow is very far anyway.

Austria Switzerland was 30,000 plus I thought and all of Turkey's bids have been based on this number.