Casement Park is going to miss deadline for Euro 2028, reveals GAA president Jarlath Burns

Burns, speaking at the launch of the All-Ireland hurling championship at the Michael Cusack Centre in Carran, Co Clare, said he did not now envisage games being played in Belfast as part of the tournament.

“It’s not looking as if we’re going to get the Euros,” lamented Burns, focusing on the impact its loss could potentially have on the city.

The redevelopment of Casement Park would still proceed, he envisaged, but not to the specification required to meet UEFA standards for hosting a tournament on that scale.

“Having attended the final of the Europa League in the Aviva, I can see what UEFA brings to a stadium and to an event,” he said. “West Belfast deserves that and we’re not getting it. It’s just a great pity because the carrot was dangled in front of us and then it was taken away.

“And actually the big loser here is going to be the game of soccer in Northern Ireland society and the economy. The Department for the Economy was waiting to weigh in with all sorts of other things that were going to come from there. It’s just a pity. But we’re still very hopeful and expectant that we’re going to get the funds to make a provincial stadium where we can play our Ulster finals.”

The Casement Park redevelopment has been mired in delays for more than a decade but in 2022, after revised planning permission was granted and legal challenges overcome, it became part of the British and Irish bid for Euro 2028 which was successful last October when Turkey, the only other bidder, withdrew.

But uncertainty over how much the final cost will be and who will bridge the widening funding gap with Euro 2028 in mind have pushed the start date back further.

Some estimates have put the cost of a UEFA-ready stadium at over £300m (€355m) and while the British government had initially suggested that they would provide the money, that position has cooled in recent months.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on a visit to the North in May, did say the contribution to Casement from the British government would be “significant” and spoke of the Euro 2028 leaving a “great legacy” for the city.

But Burns is sufficiently unconvinced to suggest that the five games scheduled for a redeveloped Casement Park are not likely to happen now.

“The whole project is being run by the Strategic Investment Board and they have been telling us that in order to get the tenders in and to find out what it’s going to cost, it’s going to take six weeks,” explained Burns.

“And then there’s going to have to be another four weeks for appeals to that. We’re working away, we’re clearing the site and that. But at the end of the day, it’s UEFA and their timelines are important.

“It has to be up and running for almost a year before you can actually say that it’s properly functional, so I’m now pessimistic that the Euros will be played in Casement Park,” he declared.

Burns said elections across the UK had further complicated the funding question.

“There’s an election in the North. And whenever an election is called, you enter into what we call purdah, where governments are not allowed to make big donations or big announcements.

“It’s very handy for the Conservative government that they get out of having to do it. The Gaelic Athletic Association will always be in a very precarious position when we find ourselves depending on the goodwill of the British government. It’s never worked out for us before. I’m very, very disappointed with the pace of how it’s gone.”

Burns drew contrast with the likely loss of the Euros now to U2 staging a concert in Sarajevo in 1997, soon after the end of the war in Bosnia.

“As somebody who was born and reared in Northern Ireland with a particular affinity to West Belfast, because that’s where my wife (Suzanne) is from, I would have felt that it would have had the same impact as U2 playing in Sarajevo at the end of their Zoo TV tour, having spent most of that tour reporting from war-torn Sarajevo. It was sending out the message that this city is now back, it’s now a modern, major European city.”

Now he senses that opportunity has slipped away for Belfast.

The Northern Ireland Executive had initially pledged £62.5m while the GAA were putting forward £15m for the project. That still stands.

But with delays and very significant construction inflation in recent years, the cost has spiralled.

Earlier this year the Irish Government pledged £43m (€50m) as part of the ‘Shared Ireland’ fund and Burns still hopes that even with the Euros looking most unlikely now, that pledge will still stand for a redeveloped provincial ground.

“I would have to take my hat off and thank the Irish Government for that money. It was a very generous Shared Island Fund donation. It didn’t come with any stipulations. One thing about the Irish Government when it comes to the GAA is that they do not act in bad faith.

“From time to time they might say something that we might disagree with, but they’ll always act in good faith and they have always been very generous to the GAA, understanding the role that the GAA has in Irish society. And it is a genuine Shared Island project because there will be teams from the south up and down all the time playing there.”

Burns remains confident that Casement will be redeveloped to a lesser specification that will cost significantly less.

“One of the things we’re going to have to do in order to get the number of people in is that we’re going to have to dig further down and take out maybe four or five metres to create more seating,” he said.

“That’s massive money to do that. That obviously wouldn’t have to be done now so it would take a lot less to build Casement to Ulster GAA final specification as opposed to European Championship specification.”