UK and Ireland tournament bid update expected on Monday

Football chiefs from the United Kingdom and Ireland will provide an update on Monday on their quest to host a major tournament.

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham and his counterparts from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – Patrick Nelson, Ian Maxwell, Noel Mooney and Jonathan Hill respectively – are to hold a joint press conference to outline the latest developments.

The move comes after the Times reported last month that the five associations were poised to scrap their plans to bid for the centenary World Cup and switch focus to Euro 2028 instead.

It was claimed political deal-making at FIFA meant they were more likely to succeed with a bid to stage the Euros.

Relations between UEFA and FIFA have become especially strained in recent months, in particular over the latter’s proposals to introduce biennial World Cups, and that would make it difficult for anyone within UEFA to say to one of its member associations with any degree of certainty that a European bid for 2030 had a chance of success.

The security breaches which marred Wembley’s hosting of last summer’s European Championship final is another cause for concern, though UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin played down the trouble and insisted: “Nobody would vote against the bid because of that.”

Those involved in the the 2030 feasibility study group will have to make a decision on which tournament to target soon, with the European governing body having announced last year that parties interested in hosting Euro 2028 need to confirm that interest by March 23, with the bidders to be announced on April 5.