THE sight of England playing Germany in their Euro 2020 clash in London 14 days ago pushed thoughts of ‘what might have been’ into many minds on this island, that game originally down to take place in Dublin before Covid-19 intervened.
vents in and around Wembley Stadium on Sunday, where poison lingered long into the night and spread into the next day across London and across social media is a portent of what could be in 2030.
There is still a plan in place for the UK nations and the Republic of Ireland to bid for the rights to host the 2030 World Cup, one of the last remaining vanity projects from the John Delaney era of the FAI. It should be stressed that the ‘home nations’ and Ireland are not actually bidding but merely exploring the possibility.
Asked about the current status of the proposal, an FAI spokesperson said: “Together with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, the FAI is currently engaged in a feasibility study prior to any bid to jointly host the 2030 FIFA World Cup. The feasibility study phase will include the examination of a wide range of issues around any potential bid. These issues will be discussed with our fellow Football Associations in the coming months.”
Events in London show that the FAI should waste no more time or money on this grandiose project and end all association with those associations. Events at Wembley on Sunday proved the English FA’s inability to use their stadium as a major tournament final venue.
A blame game is now in full flow, with the stadium’s operating company initially denying that ticketless fans had breached a security cordon which had all the effectiveness of a baby wipe and then admitting that some fans had got in, with the latest statement claiming: “We run a stadium, not a fortress”.
Fans used to having beady-eyed stadium stewards removing caps from bottles of Coke or denying families permission to bring in a kid’s bottle of water or a flask of tea due to safety concerns will wonder about the current effectiveness of stadium security. The fans who rushed in and gained illegal access to Wembley just wanted to see England play – the mind boggles with the thought of what a determined terrorist could have done.
Even worse was what happened outside the thinly-protected barriers, as London’s streets witnessed carnage and hatred. Would Irish families feel safe walking around London on match night in green shirts and scarves?
The booing of the rival teams’ anthems, the nastiness directed towards Danish and Italian fans, the ‘German bombers’ chants: it was all a catastrophe for the English game.
English football is packed with good clubs and populated by good people, but the sights and sounds of last weekend, and the general attitude of many fans who boo anthems and their own knee-taking players have taken away any right that England has to host a major tournament again.
Scour all levels of Irish football and you’ll struggle to find anyone who really wants the World Cup to come here in 2030, as they all have more pressing issues. The only people who want a World Cup here are politicians who hope their constituency can get a slice of the FIFA cake.
The sooner the FAI cut their ties with the project, the better for Irish football.