Noel Mooney: Euro 2028 would bring £10m boost for Welsh football
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Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney says hosting and qualifying for Euro 2028 would benefit the Welsh game by about £10m.
Wales will co-host a major football tournament for the first time after Uefa confirmed the UK and Ireland as hosts of the tournament.
Mooney hopes Cardiff will stage up to six games and said money generated would be invested in Welsh football.
"It's not just the money that comes directly off the football," he said.
"You get all different bonus' that come from sponsorships, there is a great prize for us but we have a lot more to bring too.
"Between qualification for the tournaments and the bonus itself you get for hosting the tournament it would be somewhere in the region of £10m that would be profit, if you want to call, to the association, which as we always do disperse back out into our Cymru Football Foundation or to grow the grassroots game.
"We're a long, long way from where we need to be in grassroots football in Wales, certainly we've made it clear in our strategy.
"I've made it clear, very many times we've a lot to do to deliver, so even if it's £10m that comes off this tournament, that's still a drop in the ocean of what we actually need to deliver for Welsh football so it would be very welcome."
Improving grassroots facilities as well as investing in the Cymru Premier and the women's Adran Premier was the priority Mooney added.
Mooney is optimistic that both the Euro 2028 opener and a quarter-final will be played at Cardiff's Principality Stadium, with games also played in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
With five host countries, it is unlikely that Uefa will offer more than two automatic places for hosting teams, so three could potentially miss out.
There has been a suggestion of two 'backstop' qualification spots available for those who miss out, with either the highest-ranking nations who failed to qualify going through, or the two sides that come closest to qualifying.
However, there are some reservations within Uefa about offering a 'backdoor' entry to nations who have failed to qualify, as well as its potential impact on the normal qualifying process.
"We're putting forward a proposal that we think based on what has happened in the past, based on the way tournaments around the world are are being decided, how that would work," Mooney told BBC Sport Wales.
"So our idea, obviously, is to qualify automatically but in the event that someone didn't qualify, the fact that you're hosting, the fact that the opening match will be stated for Cardiff you want the hosts to be there of course.
"Again, ideally we qualify automatically, we don't quite know how that would work.
"We have an idea of what we think it should look like and we've sent that to Uefa in the bid."
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