Sir Keir Starmer has told Uefa he will push for a controversial £310 million bailout of Casement Park to allow Northern Ireland to host matches in football’s 2028 European Championship.
Uefa sources said Starmer had told senior figures in European football’s governing body that the Labour government was keen to drive through the redevelopment of the derelict site.
However, it would be in the face of considerable opposition both in Northern Ireland and the cabinet. The Times reported last month that Sue Gray, the prime minister’s chief of staff, had angered government officials and ministers by “personally dominating” negotiations over a bailout for the dilapidated Gaelic games venue. That has caused resentment among Labour ministers who have been told there is no money for new spending commitments.
Although Uefa has the final say over venues for the tournament, it is not expected to intervene. Other Euro 2028 matches will take place in England, including the final and semi-finals, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.
The cost of the bailout has spiralled from £73 million, while critics — including Northern Irish fan groups — say the money should not be spent on a Gaelic games stadium that will host no football matches after staging the four Euro 2028 games.
There is also a sectarian divide, as the stadium is located in a strongly Republican area.
The alternative, of building a new stadium in a less controversial area, appears unlikely given the tight time scale and would raise questions about the future of Windsor Park, the traditional home of football in Northern Ireland, which is too small to host Euros matches.
Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, said last week the government was working “as quickly as possible” to assess the options and insisted: “One way or another, the project will be completed.”
Unionist MPs challenged him over the project, with the DUP’s Sammy Wilson saying it was “indefensible” to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a stadium when the money should go to the NHS.
by Petaaa
12 comments
Good to see Sammy trying to look after the interests of the NHS….for once
Good for you starmer. Also fuck you Sammy Wilson like JD Vance fucks a couch
It’s only controversial because some dinosaurs are yapping about it. People want it, the majority government want it
I’d love to go to a few Euros games without having to make a holiday out of it. I’d be buying all the tickets I could for games at casement, don’t care if it’s Albania vs Slovakia.
Get it built. Labour will be good for us all
Is bailout the correct word here? It’s an investment or funding surely.
I find it disingenuous as well to state that it has increased from 73m to circa 300m without adding any context as to why.
No way will the brits put up the whole £310 million. The GAA will have to put their hands in their considerable pockets and come up with more to get the stadium built.
Nobody has ever said they shouldn’t get funding but to expect the taxpayers to build a whole stadium for them.
Not like they’re short of a few pound.
This entire saga is baffling to me, from someone politically neutral, with no interest in sportsball. £300 million~ of taxes for 4 games of football is a complete waste of money.
The physical location of the stadium is complete shite, the Odyssey holds a mere 10,000 in comparison and the place grinds to a halt when Disney on Ice is on with special traffic warnings and all. How does anyone expect to get three times that to and from a location with worse logistics?
It’s not controversial.
Armagh playing in and winning a final isn’t controversial. A stadium development isn’t controversial. An Irish language act isn’t controversial.
There’s a hate filled pack of loyalist, likely pedo (some in court already, birds of a feather), fascist, religious wee old fat men and some self hating women who are white supremacists don’t want it.
No one gives a fuck about the 12th, go and look like stupid cunts if you want. But even then it’s not enough, they have to march down Catholic areas.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/northern-ireland-s-ps5-7m-cost-of-marching-season-2370736.html
The 12th costs about 6 million a year at very least, likely more, just cancel it for eternity and that’s the ground paid for….easy.
>There is also a sectarian divide, as the stadium is located in a strongly Republican area.
It’s funny how the British media can and routinely do conflate political groups for religious ones….right up until the point where it would appear to suggest blatant bigotry;
“Northern Irish fan groups say the money should not be spent on a Gaelic games stadium because it is located in a strongly Catholic area”
…..has a very different ring to it, doesn’t it?
No mention of where the other funding is coming from. No mention of the historic objections that have led to the situation. No mention of the sinister forces behind the “Northern Ireland fan groups” objections. I guess the DUP must still have some friends left at the Times; the British Army’s longest running propaganda pamphlet grumbles on.
Funny how all of the “let’s make Northern Ireland work” rhetoric never seems to materialize when it comes to things like Casement Park or Irish language issues. Why are people against making Northern Ireland work by standing in the way of issues that would bring money into a Catholic area, or issues that would enrich and invigorate Irish culture, the arts and cultural tourism? Do people NOT want NI to work? Or does Northern Ireland only work when it’s for £60million pound ice rinks in East Belfast?
There’s precisely one way that Northern Ireland can “work”, one way that it can continue to exist and one way the kind of routine division that everyone knows and is sick of can be laid to rest and that is for Unionists to work as hard as they can to make Nationalists feel wanted in the state-let. But that’s not why the state-let exists, and they never will. And it’ll never “work”.
Tell you what, Sammy must been so raging at the Tories cooked books election strategy tax cuts that cost something like £10-20Billion, when that money could have gone to the NHS. He must of been so raging he was lost for words…
Again poor journalism agenda driven Times piece to undermine labour and fudge the facts. Tories committed to spend on casement and some of the costs are because they kicked the can down the road for 2 years & the Euros draws closer so now there is a real danger NI will be the only ones not hosting any games…
This is exactly what Northern Ireland needs. Don’t believe me? How did underfunding and under developing Republican areas work out in the past, again? Anyone care to remember?
I think this would be a huge boon and actually bring people together. Encouraging one side to cross over to a side they don’t know and the other side to be more accommodating of their neighbours. Trying to make this non political won’t work – it already is highly charged. Let’s charge it head on and come what may, as most people just want to watch some footy. What’s the big deal, really?