All the UK stadiums to host Euro 2028 The list does not include Old Trafford and Anfield

UEFA has officially announced the nine stadiums where EURO 2028 will be held. The tournament will take place across the United Kingdom from 9 June to 9 July 2028, involving England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, following the 24-team format introduced in 2021 and confirmed in 2024. This will be the third edition of the European Championship to take place in the United Kingdom after the 1996 edition held entirely in England and the pan-European 2021 edition, which ended with the final at Wembley won by Italy.

The list of stadiums

There are eight host cities in total. London has been included with two stadiums: one is of course Wembley, while the second is Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the home of Tottenham — essentially an NFL arena transplanted to Europe. Also in England matches will be played at the Manchester City Stadium in Manchester, at the Everton Stadium in Liverpool, at Villa Park in Birmingham and at St James' Park in Newcastle.

Wales will be represented by the National Stadium in Cardiff, the stadium that hosted the 2017 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Juventus. Scotland is included with Hampden Park, the stadium where the Scottish national team plays its home matches and which was already used during the 2021 edition. Finally, Ireland will open the doors of the Dublin Arena, the stadium where Atalanta won the Europa League in 2024 by beating Bayer Leverkusen in the final.

Stadiums left out

Some famous stadiums are missing from this list. For example, Old Trafford is absent: the English FA, in agreement with Manchester United, decided not to include the Theatre of Dreams among Euro 2028 venues because the Red Devils' owners announced a plan in 2023 to completely renovate the stadium, and faced with the possibility that work could be delayed and thus force a withdrawal of the bid, the club's management chose not to commit.

Another proposed renovation is the reason Arsenal decided not to submit the Emirates Stadium as a Euro 2028 venue. According to The Guardian, the Gunners' board are discussing expanding the stadium to 70,000 seats, and to avoid ruling out that possibility they chose not to submit a bid. The exclusion of Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s home ground, is linked to the stadium not meeting UEFA's requirements for this type of competition. The same reason applies to Anfield and Everton’s new stadium, which had been selected by the organizing committee to represent the city of Liverpool before it was even built.

Casement Park

Then there is Casement Park, the abandoned stadium in Belfast that was supposed to host some Euro 2028 matches. The plan called for a massive renovation to transform what is today a concrete ruin overgrown with weeds into a 35,000-seat stadium compliant with UEFA standards.

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The costs for this work were initially estimated at £168 million, but that figure was dramatically revised upwards and, faced with a projected expense of £400 million, the British Government blocked the project, leaving Casement Park in its current abandoned state and consequently excluding Northern Ireland from hosting Euro 2028.