Ireland 2014

One Cold Hand

Was just watching CNN there and it appears that Brazil are the only team launching a bid for the 2014 World Cup. This may be old news to some of you, but it got me thinking, surely this would be the ideal time for Ireland to launch a bid to host the WC?!

Imagine the scenes:
'And now live to Carlow Stadium where a capacity crowd of 507 people have packed in to see Argentina take on Italy in the semi-final.'

It'd be class, and we'd have guaranteed entry!
The tag line could be:
Ireland 2014: Sure even if the weather is shíte, we'll have great craic!

Mitch Connor

WC has to be in south america for 2014. Maybe if we got all the people on the east and north east coasts to hope out and paddle/push we could get ourselves in contention.

Galvasean

Tauren wrote:

Maybe if we got all the people on the east and north east coasts to hope out and paddle/push we could get ourselves in contention.

Tommy Tiernan, is that you?

Creamy Goodness

seriously, we would need at least two more croke parks to be even considered a outside contender.

Mitch Connor

Galvasean wrote:

Tommy Tiernan, is that you?

i wish - i would be a lot richer and not sitting at a PC in work right now....

Savman

We're way off being able to hold a European Championship, let alone the World Cup. I hear it's looking like it could be England for 2018, I think it's Beckenbaur who is trying to get rid of the FIFA rotation policy altogether.
England is due one tbh, has all the infrastructure already in place.

Daysha

A Rugby World Cup would be a distint possibility in the future I'd say. Obviously some of the games would be over in the UK, but it would be just like how Wales did it in 1999. All of the Five Nations of the time hosted games then. Croke Park along with the redeveloped Lansdowne Road and Thomond Park would do well. I dont think even Wales had that many back in 99

Dub13

Cremo wrote:

seriously, we would need at least two more croke parks to be even considered a outside contender.

I would say more,I am not sure of the minimum number of grounds you need to host the world cup but its so big these days I would say you would need at least 6/8 grounds that hold over 40k.

The FAI have been trying to get one ground up and running for the last 15 years.

shane86

Ireland on its own couldnt do the WC. Building of such huge stadiums for one month and 2 weeks later 3000 people are watching Pats v Shels in their "we`ll show yis" 70,000 seater stadium (having said that, while the Dutch teams would get good turnout, Belgiums internal leagues arent exactly up there with the prem and bundesliga, Id assume they had to whack a few extra stadiums in in 2000, wonder was it money well spent?)

A Celtic nations idea like they tried for Euro 2008 probably wouldnt have enough grounds even. I say try it again for the 2016 Euros- new Landsdowne, Croker, the new stadium talked of in Belfast, Milennium, Celtic Park, Ibrox, Murrayfield, and I think both sides in Edinburgh have reasonable capacity, could pull her off.

Final for croker of course, as the critically acclaimed bleedin raphid Scooter once said, "**** the Millennium!!!"

Dub13

shane86 wrote:

A Celtic nations idea like they tried for Euro 2008 probably wouldnt have enough grounds even. I say try it again for the 2016 Euros- new Landsdowne, Croker, the new stadium talked of in Belfast, Milennium, Celtic Park, Ibrox, Murrayfield, and I think both sides in Edinburgh have reasonable capacity, could pull her off.

Uefa would never allow 4 home teams to automatically qualify for the European Championship.

Lets start small and try to bring the Eurovision back 'Home'.

DaveH

The problem with hosting a tournament is not just the stadiums, you also need top quailty training grounds. that was one of the reason why the euro 2008 bid failed. The other was the fact that Two stadiums were in Dublin and 3 in Glasgow (parkhead, Ibrox & Hampden) UEFA want a spread of the games.

I think we should bid with Scotland again.
I also think if we bid again we should go two groups. I know this is unlikely but the bid should involve..Lawnsdowne and Croker plus a 2nd group in Cork\Tipperary...Pairc Ui Chaomh and Thurles.
I know there are 3 GAA grounds, put Pairc ui Chaomh and thurles would get upgrades and the competition only lasts a week, thats what might swing the GAA.
Thurles is amazing for matches...probably the best town in ireland for atomsphere.

Think of the tourists coming into that part of the country...it would be a big winner. There is no more then 4 big games a year in thurles..so an extra would be a big revenue pull.

shane86

Dub13 wrote:

Uefa would never allow 4 home teams to automatically qualify for the European Championship.

Lets start small and try to bring the Eurovision back 'Home'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_2008

They at least allowed the nordics to bid, id wonder why theyd allow it if there was no hope mind (didnt know they had bid together, it puts a new What If light on the Denmark v Sweden match a while back ). Because two teams auto qualify, has FIFA increased the amount of teams in the tournament or is is TS to everyone else who has to qualify?

Jesus, the vast majority of those stadiums are pretty small on a European comparison (certainly compared to a bid that would include Croker, Millennium, Ibrox, CP, Murrayfield and probably the proposed one in Belfast)

shane86

Just watching Sports Tonight, there was a piece with Stan and John Delaney launching some whoopty da plan to have us in the top 16 teams of Europe within 10 years*, I was only half listening to the end but did i hear them say a joint bid with the nordies for 2020 is being considered? (why not 2016 i dont know, christ, in 2020 Ill be going on 34 :eek: ) That would mean Croker, the new Landsdowne, the proposed new stadium in Belfast.....and where else? Would this country really build what Id assume would be a min of 6 or 7 fairly large new stadiums?




*considering the only traditional superpower national squads of European football are Italy, Germany and Holland, and that the English, Portuguese and Spanish bite at the heels but havent consistently made it, the French are relavitely new on the list (in 70 odd years of European football a mere 9 years as one of Europes strongest teams is fairly junior ) and the Czechs and Croats have somewhat fallen off it, top 16within 10 years is rather lacking in expectation or ambition. No matter what the FIFA rankings said we are bound to have been at the level in the early 90s and again from about 2001-2003 (no.6 worldwide in 1993 IIRC, which presuming the top 5 included Argentina and Brazil must have placed us within the European top 4.)

Galvasean

Dub13 wrote:

Uefa would never allow 4 home teams to automatically qualify for the European Championship.

Maybe the home nations would have their own qualifying group... or am I living in a wild fantasy land?