According to a Senedd meeting yesterday, Cardiff is likely to host the opening ceremony of Euro 2028 (as well as six matches).

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y22p6pkw9o

Now, this would be great to showcase Welsh culture and potentially boost the local economy (although I'm sure there'll be a few naysayers on here).

What's more interesting to me though is if this impacts Wales' chances of automatic qualification.

Currently, UEFA has said that only two co-hosts can qualify automatically (despite FIFA allowing six for the 2030 World Cup, although that's a whole different can of worms in itself). As Euro 2028 will be co-hosted by us, England, Scotland, and the Rep of Ireland, that makes things tricky.

It hasn't been clarified how this will work yet, but it was assumed all 4 teams would go through the qualifying process and the two spots would be held back as a safety net if someone didn't make it. In reality, England would likely qualify anyway, so there would be 2 spots remaining if us, Scotland, and the ROI didn't qualify.

I wonder now, however, if this makes it more likely that we'll get an automatic spot? It would be bizarre to see an opening ceremony that showcases the culture and history of a country that isn't even playing at the tournament.