Irish FA president Raymond Kennedy has insisted he will focus his attentions on finding a national stadium before dreaming about a joint bid to host the European Championships in 2016.

Kennedy, who didn't know of plans to submit a bid by the governing bodies of Scotland and Wales together with Northern Ireland when contacted by the Belfast Telegraph yesterday, has now put his weight behind the idea after what he described as “tentative talks”.

But the president was quick to reiterate his desire to get answers on the national stadium debate with the proposals for the former Maze Prison site, now a seemingly dead duck.

While the Northern Ireland footballing public await an announcement from Sports Minister Gregory Campbell, any further talks on a Euro bid will take a back seat.

But with pressure to get answers from government mounting, the potential of bringing a major sporting event to Northern Ireland could speed up the process.

"I would be delighted if we were part of any bid for a championship that would give us some games," said Kennedy last night.

"But, frankly, I do not think we are in that position at the moment because we do not have any stadiums that are suitable.

"Hopefully things might change in that respect and we will have a new national stadium in about two years time.

"We are due to meet the Scots in other business in the New Year and would be prepared to have more formal talks then about a possible bid for the championship.

"At the moment, we have held only tentative discussions about the situation. It is certainly an interesting idea."

The Scottish FA are already in a position to use their national stadium Hampden Park, as well as the homes of the Old Firm — Rangers’ Ibrox stadium and Celtic’s Parkhead. Their Welsh counterparts have the superb Millennium Stadium at their disposal and Swansea City’s new Liberty Stadium.

The European Championships have been expanded to 24 teams which will almost certainly mean 10 stadia will have to be made available as opposed to the eight used when Spain were crowed the Kings of Europe in Austria last summer.

A re-vamped Windsor Park is unlikely to cut it for Northern Ireland’s participation in hosting Euro 2016 so an all singing, all dancing new national stadium would be the only way forward.

Applications to host European football’s showpiece tournament are likely to be invited in the Spring of 2009 and the IFA will seek assurances before they commit to a formal bid.