Remembering Plymouth's doomed bid to host World Cup 2018

FOOTBALL is coming home. Or at least that’s the hope when England and the rest of the home nations host Euro 2028.

- DANIEL CLARK

The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland will host the 2028 European Championship, UEFA this week confirmed. The joint bid ran unopposed after Turkey withdrew to focus on a bid with Italy for Euro 2032, which was also confirmed at a meeting in Switzerland.

Matches at Euro 2028 are set to be held at 10 different grounds. In England, they include Wembley and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Everton’s currently being built Bramley-Moore Dock stadium in Liverpool, the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, Villa Park in Birmingham and St James’ Park in Newcastle

Hampden Park in Glasgow, Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, Dublin’s Aviva Stadium and Belfast’s Casement Park - the latter currently unbuilt - complete the bid. Plymouth though is not on the list.

And perhaps that is not a surprise - Home Park, the home of Plymouth Argyle, only has a capacity of 16,388, well short of the minimum required. But there was once a time when Britain’s Ocean City was in line to host elite international football.

Had England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup been successful, then one of the grounds which would have hosted and formed part of the bid would have been in Plymouth as one of 16 cities competing to be chosen as one of the final dozen venues. Argyle would now be boasting an all-singing and all-dancing 46,000- seater stadium, and there would have been a major redevelopment of the city.

Dreams of luring the World Cup to England to Plymouth crashed and burned on December 2, 2010 - as Russia came out on top amid controversy votes had been bought to secure its victory. And to top it all off, Qatar secured 2022. England’s bid came fourth out of five, and the hopes and dreams of World Cup football in Devon disappeared - probably forever.