Gareth Southgate has insisted that he can’t continue to call-up Harry Maguire for England duty if he isn’t playing regular club football.

The Man Utd captain has almost totally fallen out of favour at Old Trafford this season under new manager Erik ten Hag, making just seven starts in the Premier League during the 2022/23 campaign thus far.

Due to this lack of gametime, and generally under-par performances when he is on the field, Southgate’s decision to select the defender for the last number of Three Lions squads has been called into question.

Maguire was once again called up by Southgate for England duty this week – along with Kalvin Phillips, who has managed just one Premier League start at Manchester City – and during his press conference announcing the squad, the manager was notably questioned about both players’ selections.

“Inevitably it’s not a situation that can continue on forever, “Southgate explained. “It’s like Kalvin Phillips, they are important players for us and with Kalvin we haven’t got many players who can play as that single [midfield] pivot.”

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Elsewhere in defence there was a much deserved re-call for Trent Alexander-Arnold following a string of impressive performance for Liverpool at the tail-end of the season.

Speaking about Alexander-Arnold, Southgate was keen to stress how good a relationship he has with the player despite recent England snubs.

“Contrary to what might be the mood music – I have a really good relationship with him and we talk a lot about his game, football,” Southgate continued.

“I’ve always recognised his qualities as a player but he’s just been unlucky that we’ve got Walker, who has just had three of the best games I’ve seen from a right-back, Trippier who has probably been one of the outstanding players this season, Reece James also.”

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England manager Gareth Southgate insists that Brentford striker Ivan Toney could be part of his Three Lions squad at Euro 2024 next year, despite a lengthy ban for breaching betting rules.

Toney is suspended from all football activity for eight months, excluding him from even training at Brentford until September. He will be eligible to return to playing on 16 January 2024, only five months before Euro 2024 in Germany is due to begin.

The Bees star has scored 32 goals across his two Premier League seasons with the club, on top of the 33 he scored en-route to promotion from Championship in 2020/21.

Toney was called up by England for the first time in March, having already admitted to many of the 262 charges brought against him by the FA for contravening strict gambling regulations.

Southgate expressed concern over what Toney does now at a time when he isn’t even able to train in a professional environment for the duration of the summer.

“The ban is the ban. He’s recognised and accepted the punishment. What bothers me is we’ve got to look after people,” the England boss said.

“He’s injured at the moment, what does he do about getting fit? How do we give him some structure over the next few months so that he can develop himself or be a better person at the end of it or have experiences that he might not experience?

“I don’t like the idea we just leave somebody, that they’re not allowed to be part of the football community. I don’t think that’s how we should work, how the best rehabilitation programmes work.”

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Looking ahead to Toney’s eventual return and the role he could play at Euro 2024, Southgate was keen to stress that the door will be open.

“When he comes back, if he plays well, then we’ll pick him,” the boss said.

“It’s not ideal because he’s going to miss a large chunk of the season and you don’t know after that sort of period out, how physically he’s going to adapt and how he’s going to play.

“But it’s possible for him, there would still be time. He’s really impressed us with the way he’s played. I like his personality, his belief and the way he goes about his job. Everything is still possible for him.”

The international football calendar is always a few steps ahead of everyone and we are actually not that far away from finding out who will host Euro 2028.

Owing to how long it can take to prepare to host a major football tournament, there is a focus on Euro 2028 despite the qualification campaign for Euro 2024 still taking place.

Here is a breakdown of who has submitted a bid to host the tournament and when we will find out where it will be held.

On September 27 2021, formal applications were invited by UEFA, meaning football associations were allowed to approach UEFA and make their initial bid to host the tournament. They had until March 23 2022, to register their interest, any later and you would not be allowed to bid.

A week later on March 30, the interested bidders had the hosting requirements put forward to them and on April 5, the bidders were publicly announced to the world. The opening workshop for bidders was April 28 and by November 16, the preliminary bid dossiers had to be submitted.

The submission of final bid dossiers was made on April 12 2023. They will be evaluated by UEFA with the announcement of a host coming in September 2023.

Euro 2028 host bidding schedule

Back in June 2021, an application for Euro 2028 and 2032 was put forward by Alexej Sorokin, the organising committee director of Euro 2020 host city Saint Petersburg. That was reaffirmed in March 2022, but UEFA soon declared the Russian bids for both 2028 and 2032 ineligible.

This was because the 2022 invasion of Ukraine breaches Article 16.2 of the Bid Regulations. They state that “each bidder shall ensure that it does not act in a manner that could bring UEFA, any other bidder, the bidding procedure or European football into disrepute.”

United Kingdom and Ireland

A joint bid has been submitted by the United Kingdom and Ireland which would see games held in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The associations dropped their 2030 World Cup bid in order to facilitate this Euro 2028 bid.

A shortlist of 14 stadiums was drawn up and on April 12 the final list of ten was announced.

The bid from Turkey was announced in August 2019 and is their sixth consecutive bid to host a European Championship.

They have been unsuccessful for the 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 tournaments but have confirmed their shortlist of prospective stadiums for 2028.

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FIGC president Gabriele Gravina first discussed the bid in February 2019 when he told Sky Sport Italia a bid was being considered by the federation. He mentioned it again soon after Italy beat England at Wembley to win Euro 2020.

In February 2022 though, the FIGC announced there would be no bid for Euro 2028 as they are focusing on Euro 2032 instead. This is because they feel they need more time to redevelop many of the stadiums in the country that have not seen development for decades.

There were three other potential bids for Euro 2028 that did not end up submitting what was needed for the final consideration stage. The Danish FA announced in March 2016 there would be a huge joint bid with Sweden, Norway, Finland, Faroe Islands and Iceland.

Spain announced in September 2018 that they would be bidding with Portugal for either Euro 2028 or the 2030 World Cup.

February 2019 saw the announcement of a joint bid from Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia for Euro 2028 as well as the 2030 World Cup. All of this interest was shown but it was just the United Kingdom and Ireland and Turkey that submitted actual bids.