http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/republic_of_ireland/3884451.stm
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FAI keen on Euro 2012 bid

The Football Association of Ireland is considering a bid to co-host the 2012 European Championship with Scotland.

FAI chief executive Fran Rooney re-iterated the plans, despite the failure of their joint bid with Scotland to host the 2008 tournament.

"We are looking at the possbility of staging the tournament," said Rooney. "We will of course have to formally approach the Scottish FA once more.

"We will have only one stadium at our disposal, the revamped Lansdowne Road."

The bid for Euro 2008 came up short, with Austria and Switzerland winning the rights after Uefa decided their proposal was the best of the seven contenders.

The joint Celtic bid was not among the final four bids recommended to Uefa's executive by the national team committee.

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Total non-starter in my view. Our Euro 2008 bid failed because the Irish were very indecisive and because of the SFA's narrow-mindedness (hey, when have they ever thought out anything?) for not picking Murrayfield for the final, which lost us major points in our bid. What makes them think we'll do it now?

In my mind, a joint bit with England (using the North-East stadia such as St. James' Park, etc) would be much more feasible.

i would like see an euro in ireland and scotland. Maybe Ireland could use the croke park.

I highly doubt a joint-bid with England would succeed Den. England only hosted it 8 years ago.

Originally posted by Jambo Den


Total non-starter in my view. Our Euro 2008 bid failed because the Irish were very indecisive and because of the SFA's narrow-mindedness (hey, when have they ever thought out anything?) for not picking Murrayfield for the final, which lost us major points in our bid. What makes them think we'll do it now?

In my mind, a joint bit with England (using the North-East stadia such as St. James' Park, etc) would be much more feasible.

Yeah, I totally agree. It seems a tad political to me: joint Celtic bid... I'm just a 'born cynic' though. Maybe Scotland should host it alone, if the Rep. of Ireland doesn't have the capacity/infrastructure...

We just don't have the capacity to go it alone man.

Out of the 4 stadia we have over 50,000, 3 are in Glasgow. Plus many of the stadia around the country would have to be brought up to the 30,000 criteria, and would almost certainly be dormant after the tournament.

Don't get me wrong, I would love it if we could stage it ouselves, but we quite simply are too small to host it. That's not arrogance or anything, just plain fact.

Originally posted by Punkt
i would like see an euro in ireland and scotland. Maybe Ireland could use the croke park.

Croke Park refuses to let 'foreign sports' be played on its ground.

Nice to see they are with the times! :D

Originally posted by Jambo Den
We just don't have the capacity to go it alone man.

Out of the 4 stadia we have over 50,000, 3 are in Glasgow. Plus many of the stadia around the country would have to be brought up to the 30,000 criteria, and would almost certainly be dormant after the tournament.

Don't get me wrong, I would love it if we could stage it ouselves, but we quite simply are too small to host it. That's not arrogance or anything, just plain fact.

Your plan sounds great (North-Eastern Stadia in England)- if only people could get over their petty differences. Forlorn hope unfortunately...

I agree, I don't think that the stadia or infrastructure is in place for Scotland/Ireland to host a major championships. Unlike other European countries, the only feesable stadiums in Scotland and Ireland are in the capitals, and not spread out around the country, which would probably cause problems (congestion etc). Even if they could host it with England I doubt English FA would agree.

Originally posted by Jambo Den
Croke Park refuses to let 'foreign sports' be played on its ground.

Nice to see they are with the times! :D

that is pretty stupid IMO

Possible scot-irish bid stadiums:

-Murrayfield (Edinburgh) 67500

-Hampden Park (Glasgow) 50670

-Celtic Park (Glasgow) 60506

-Ibrox Park (Glasgow) 50420

-Croke Park (Dublin) 79000 (if convince them :p )

-Landsdown Road (Dublin) 34000 ? (renovated)

-Gaelic Grounds (Limerick) 50000 (another gaelic football stadium) :)

-and new irish stadium possible build in dublin or other city


i think it's possible. the problem is that the tournament would be much concentrated in 3 cities.

Whoa we're not hosting CL finals :(

I thought the Irish didn't like Scotland (or Britain)?

Sounds alright to me, but who else wants to host it?

Another thing - which country is hosting 2008?

Joint hosts for 2008 - Switzerland and Austria.

Originally posted by acmilan101


Another thing - which country is hosting 2008?

Austria and Switzerland

aberdeen are planning to make a 20k to 30k staduim whether theirs a bid or not so thats another staduim. personally, i doubt we'll ever get it scotland is too small. and in terms of football, its basically just the central belt which makes it even smaller!

Won't happen.

Enough said

I don't like when tournaments are between two countries :(, in my opinion it should be only one country. Especially with Austria and Switzerland I mean come on Austria will just take up a space in the group stage :(.

Originally posted by $teauA
I don't like when tournaments are between two countries :(, in my opinion it should be only one country. Especially with Austria and Switzerland I mean come on Austria will just take up a space in the group stage :(.

I agree, it's sort of just a "killing 2 birds with one stone" type of mentality. One single country should get all the rights of hosting a tournament, that's just my opinion..

Also - nobody answered me - I thought Ireland hated Scotland or Britian?

Its very complicated mate, but I think the feeling is Ireland prefer Scotland over England... a lot of Irish descendants here (Celtic, historically Irish club)

Wales and Scotland could possibly do it...i think Ireland is out of the question tho