From bombing to Euros again: Manchester’s three-decade football mega-event transformation

When UEFA Euro 2028 visits Manchester, the host venue will be the Etihad Stadium rather than Old Trafford, which served the city for soccer mega-events in 1966, 1996, 2012 and 2022. This paper argues that Euro 2028 in Manchester can be understood as the validation of a three-decade urban transformation triggered by the 1996 IRA bombing during Euro 96, mediated through the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Cumulative public investment in East Manchester since 1995, sustained by Abu Dhabi capital from 2008, has at last produced a venue ecosystem capable of displacing a privately owned freehold that has not been comparably reinvested in. Drawing on documentary analysis on Manchester regeneration covering more than 30 years, the paper offers two contributions to mega-event and soccer scholarship: (i) cumulative legacy is threshold-dependent; and (ii) the Manchester case shows how mid-tier event infrastructure, when underwritten by transnational capital, can outcompete a long-established footballing default.