Leeds United and Manchester United to meet in historic pre-season friendly at Croke Park
Leeds United and Manchester United will play a pre-season friendly at Croke Park in Dublin on Wednesday, the fourth meeting between the Roses rivals in eight summers; the match is sold out at the stadium's 82,300 capacity.
Croke Park hosted the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final between Kerry and Mayo last month and is staging two English clubs for the first time, with association football not having been played there since 2009 and, prior to 2007, never at all.
The venue's past is tied to GAA rules that once barred so-called 'foreign' sports: Rule 42 prevented English football and rugby from being played at Croke Park, and until 1971 anyone who watched or played those sports could not be a GAA member. The stadium was also the scene of a reprisal attack in November 1920 when 14 people, including the Tipperary player Michael Hogan, were killed by British forces and many more were injured; earlier that day Irish Republican Army leader Michael Collins had planned an attack in the south of Dublin that led to the deaths of 14 people, including 12 men considered by Collins to be the backbone of the British intelligence system in the city.
Policy changed around the time reconstruction work at Lansdowne Road began in 2007: amid huge debate the GAA amended Rule 42 to allow Croke Park to be used for association football and rugby on a temporary basis, and in 2010, when Aviva Stadium opened on the Lansdowne Road site, the case-by-case policy was made permanent. "Games like rugby and soccer were seen as being imperialistic or not part of our native culture," explains Peter McKenna, Croke Park's stadium and commercial director, in a chat with BBC Sport. "In order to maintain membership, there was the so-called ban. Things change over time, people become more mature and more flexible. So that rule no longer exists, and we have a very strong relationship with the Football Association of Ireland and with the Irish Rugby Football Union."
Croke Park has hosted England's rugby team in the Six Nations, most notably in 2007 when England lost 43-13; there had been concern over the potential reaction to God Save The Queen being played, but the anthem "was impeccably observed, with visiting captain Phil Vickery and his players, plus the English supporters, clearly audible – although the noise they made was incomparable to the Irish anthems that followed," and Brian O'Driscoll's side won comfortably. Opposition to non-Gaelic games has persisted in pockets: Sean Kelly, GAA president between 2003 and 2006, recalled protesters including one carrying a placard in a Celtic jersey reading: 'No foreign games in Croke Park' and another wearing a jersey saying, Sean 'Judas' Kelly. "Most people accepted it. But to this day, some do not. And even at Congress this year, I went up to two fellas I hadn't seen for a while. One of them shook hands with me. The other said: 'I don't shake hands with you, you let the Brits into Croke Park.' I said: 'That's grand, thanks very much.'"
Royal and sporting milestones have punctuated the stadium's modern era: Queen Elizabeth II visited Croke Park in May 2011 during her state visit to Ireland, pictured with Irish President Mary McAleese and GAA president Christy Cooney, and former Leeds and Manchester United defender Denis Irwin was inducted into the FAI Hall of Fame in September 2025. Leeds and Manchester United also benefit from strong playing links to the Republic of Ireland through figures such as Jonny Giles, Denis Irwin and Roy Keane, which contributes to the island-wide support for both clubs.
On the scale of fixtures staged at Croke Park, organisers see Wednesday's friendly as notable. "Historically we've never had two Premiership teams here or two non-international teams," said McKenna. "To get one of the biggest teams in the world, Manchester United, to break our duck on that is fantastic, and there is a rivalry with Leeds, who have a huge support. You couldn't bring two better teams together to just say this is what can be done."
