England set to play all their games at Wembley

England are set to be given the chance to play all their Euro 2028 matches at Wembley after UEFA yesterday confirmed the UK and Ireland as joint tournament hosts.

all the home nations will lobby UEFA for their group games to be staged in their national stadiums assuming they qualify, with Casement Park in Belfast, dublin’s aviva Stadium, Hampden Park in glasgow and Cardiff’s Principality Stadium the non-English venues to be awarded matches.

While the final decisions on match schedule will be made by UEFA the commercial benefits of staging England matches at Wembley are likely to see the Fa get their way. Of the 51 tournament matches, 28 will be played in England, with Ireland, Scotland and Wales getting six matches each and northern Ireland five games.

With Wembley expected to get eight games including both semifinals and the final the five other English venues — the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Etihad Stadium, St James’ Park, Villa Park and Everton’s new home at Bramley-Moore dock — will play host to just four matches each. The opening game is set to be played at the Principality Stadium.

Fa chief executive Mark Bulling-ham confirmed that all the host nations wanted to go through qualifying, but UEFA will keep two spots open in reserve for any who fail to qualify. If more than two fail to qualify automatically then the teams with the best records in the campaign will make it.

‘We decided it would be better to take part in qualification,’ Bulling-ham said. ‘It is now hard to get a number of friendlies and we think the games are more meaningful and better for the players.’

Meanwhile, a number of northern Ireland fans will shun matches at Casement Park because it evokes ‘difficult memories’ of the Troubles, a charity supporting victims of the conflict has warned.

The derelict ground is to be rebuilt into a 34,000- seater stadium for the tournament. However, questions have been raised about the suitability of the venue, due to its links to the ‘Corporals killings’. In March 1988, British soldiers derek Wood and david

Howes were beaten and stripped at Casement Park after driving into the funeral procession of an IRA member, before being taken to waste ground and shot dead.

Kenny donaldson, director of the South East Fermanagh Foundation that supports victims and survivors, told Mail Sport: ‘Casement Park evokes very difficult memories for many people. It was the scene of a very public double murder. For some, the connections with this issue will mean that they are unable or unwilling to visit the venue.’