HAVING APPEARED more than happy to take a back-seat role when Ireland last bid – with Scotland – to play a part in hosting the event almost a decade ago, FAI chief executive John Delaney seems more positive now about the prospect of the European Championships coming to Ireland in 2020.
Delaney said yesterday in an RTÉ radio interview that a successful bid is “do-able” but insisted that the chances of Ireland, Scotland and Wales successfully landing the event between them would depend on many factors, including the willingness of the GAA and, possibly, the IRFU, to make venues available for the event.
He also said that while Turkey and Georgia are the only two countries at this stage to signal their intention to make solo bids, Uefa have left open the possibility of one of the continent’s bigger nations joining the race somewhere down the line.
“In total you need nine or 10 (stadiums) so that’s do-able,” said Delaney.
“We’d be depending on the support of the GAA and the IRFU, if you were to look at Thomond Park as another stadium. But that’s something you can’t presume either.
“I took soundings from the top Uefa people,” he continued. “They said ‘listen, we’d love if you expressed an interest because we want a bidding process’. Turkey at that stage were the only country looking at bidding.
“At this stage Georgia, Turkey and ourselves have expressed an interest. Because of that, anybody else can enter a bid. So the Germans, the English or anybody else can enter a bid.
“So it’s early days. I want to see who else would bid. Is the bid feasible, though?
“Could it be done? Yes, it could between ourselves, Scotland and Wales. Would it be a winning bid? You have to wait and see as to who else gets involved.”
Turkey, in fact, are considered strong favourites to land the championships and when the Dutch ruled out bidding recently they cited a likely Turkish victory in the process as one of their reasons.
The Germans have also said previously that they will not enter the race.
The Turks have support in high places, with Uefa president Michel Platini having indicated he is inclined vote for their bid.
The situation is complicated, however, by the fact the Turks are also bidding to host the Olympics the same year and have assured the IOC they would not host any other major events around that time.
There are, therefore, concerns within both organisations that they are not entirely focused on one event at present and there has been some pressure on them, it is believed, to decide on one or the other.
Uefa are not expected, meanwhile, to publish the details of the bidding process for some time yet, with a decision expected to be taken in late 2013 or early the next year.
