The decision comes after advice from a senior figure within Fifa.
The United Kingdom and Ireland are set to drop their campaign to host the World Cup in 2030 and instead launch a bid to host the 2028 European Championships, according to reports.
The four UK countries – England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland – along with Ireland were considering a bid for the tournament. The British government conducted a feasibility study, while the Conservative party even included bidding to host the World Cup in their election manifesto at the end of 2019.
However, the bid now looks unlikely to happen, with the nations urged to focus on hosting Euro 2028 instead.
According to The Times, the decision has been made after discussions with senior figures who claimed that launching a bid for the FIFA tournament would be risky given that they are looking to take the World Cup to new countries across the world.
Currently, there has been no final decision made, but it is expected that the four home nations and Ireland will come to an agreement to try to succeed in a bid to host the Euros in 2028 before the deadline in March.
The tournament which they are trying to host will see the competition expand from 24 to 32 teams for the first time. Officials at UEFA want a low-risk event with guarantees of commercial success – something they are confident that Britain and Ireland can bring due to the fact that the stadium infrastructure needed is already available.
Under one set of plans, the structure of the tournament would see England host four of the eight groups for the competition, whilst the other four respective nations host a group stage each, as well as selected knock-out games.
Meanwhile, the 32 nations competing would be split across the five nations for their training camps, after insisting that it would be foolish to ignore advice given from the hierarchy in regards to a 2030 World Cup bid.
