Written answers

Thursday, 15 February 2018

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Sports Events

Photo of Noel RockNoel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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45. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding plans to host a number of UEFA Euro 2020 games here. [7525/18]

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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In 2014, Dublin won the right to host 4 matches of the UEFA EURO2020 tournament comprising three group games and one second round game. The bid to host was a collaborative effort between the Football Association of Ireland, Dublin City Council and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. 

Since then a Local Organising Structure (LOS) has been developed with the participation of the three main stakeholders and other organisations key to delivering the tournament.  This structure includes a Project Board to oversee the overall project, a Project Working Group to manage it on a day-to-day basis and a number of sectoral sub-groups.  The LOS is working closely with UEFA to meet their hosting requirements for EURO 2020 in areas such as the presentation of the stadium, broadcasting facilities, fanzones and spectator experience, transport, security, commercial rights protection, and national promotion. 

The first major event of EURO 2020 will be the live televised draw for the qualifying groups which will take place on December 2, 2018.  In September last, the Dublin LOS won the bid to host this event and accordingly attendees representing UEFA's 55 National Associations will come to the Convention Centre Dublin for the event next December.  It is expected that there will be 650 guests, including almost 300 delegates from the participating countries, 350 media representatives accredited to cover the event, and more than 70 broadcasters to show the draw live to an audience of 140 million around the world

Separately, UEFA decided last December that qualifying groups in the finals will be staged in "paired cities" and Dublin has been paired with Bilbao for its group.  The full pairings are

Group A: Rome and Baku

Group B: Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen

Group C: Amsterdam and Bucharest

Group D: London and Glasgow

Group E: Bilbao and Dublin

Group F: Munich and Budapest

Preparations for EURO 2020 will intensify over the next two years with tickets going on sale in 2019 and qualifying being completed in March 2020.

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