FAI Chief Executive Fran Rooney has confirmed that Wembley is just one of the venues that the association are considering to host Ireland’s home qualifying games for the 2008 European Championships while Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped.
The stadium at Lansdowne Road will be closed for a minimum of two years while it is completely rebuilt and already the IRFU have come to an agreement to hold their ‘home’ Six Nations matches in Twickenham and Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium while the work is taking place.
Hopes of Croke Park being made available seem to have disappeared due to the GAA’s unwillingness to even discuss the possible opening of the 80,000 capacity stadium.
Rooney has intimated that discussions are underway with a number of venues to host Ireland’s ‘home’ games from 2006 on while Lansdowne Road is off limits.
“What we have to do now is look at a number of options while Lansdowne is shut and Wembley is one of them,” confirmed the FAI boss.
“The new Wembley may well be available for that period and we need to consider all options. Some clubs in England have already approached us offering their grounds and while we are not prepared to make any statements on that yet, I can confirm that we are in discussions with them.
“Unfortunately, we have to look at grounds outside Ireland. We are not even going to approach the issue of playing at Croke Park so we are looking at using a stadium in the UK.
“There are obvious candidates like Wembley, the national stadium in Cardiff, Celtic, Anfield, Old Trafford and some other grounds that may suit us in terms of Irish communities.
“At this stage Lansdowne won’t be available if the redevelopment goes to plan. To get that stadium we are going to have to take some pain along the way. If that pain means that we are going to have to play abroad then so be it, we will do it.”
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