Women's Euro 2021: FA submits bid to host Women's European Championship

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England celebrate reaching the Euro 2017 semi-finals after beating France
England players celebrate reaching the Euro 2017 semi-finals after beating France for the first time in 43 years

The Football Association has submitted a bid to host the Women's European Championship in 2021.

England hosted Euro 2005 and reached the 1984 and 2009 European finals.

FA head of women's football Baroness Campbell told BBC Sport: "It would be enormous to have a major championship like this on home soil.

"Uefa will want a bigger and better tournament than the last one and we've got Wembley as a key card to play, to host the final."

A final decision on the successful host nation will taken by Uefa on 3 December 2018, with Austria and Hungary also believed to be in contention.

The FA's decision to submit its bid, which has the backing of the government, follows England successful Euro 2017 campaign in the Netherlands which saw the Lionesses reach the semi-finals, generating a record peak audience of four million TV viewers in the UK.

The proposed cities and stadiums included in the bid are Brighton & Hove Albion's Amex Stadium, Brentford's Community Stadium, MK Dons' Stadium MK, Manchester City's Academy Stadium, Notts County's Meadow Lane, Peterborough's Abax Stadium, Rotherham's New York Stadium and Sheffield United's Bramall Lane.

Chelsea Ladies lift the Women's FA Cup
Chelsea Ladies' won the 2018 FA Cup final in front of a record crowd of 45,423 at Wembley.

What is the state of women's football in England?

Women's football in England has grown since it turned semi-professional with the start of the Women's Super League seven years ago, with attendances in the domestic game peaking at an average of 1,128 after England finished third at the 2015 World Cup.

Last season, there was a record Wembley crowd of 45,423 at the FA Cup final but WSL crowds dipped, coinciding with a move back to a winter league after six years of summer fixtures.

In January, the FA announced an additional £50m of investment in women's and girl's football over the next six seasons, taking the total investment from the 2018-19 season onwards to £114m.

A positive showing under England boss Phil Neville at the 2019 World Cup in France would also help boost the game's popularity.

Neville's side are fourth in Fifa's rankings behind the United States, Germany and France, who they beat at the last Euros for the first time in 43 years.

"Our bid to host Women's Euro 2021 reflects our strong commitment to supporting and growing women's and girl's football in England," said the FA's chief executive officer Martin Glenn.

"We have invested heavily in the women's game in recent years and the opportunity to bring the tournament to England would represent a landmark moment for women's football in this country.

"Our aim is to make Euro 2021 the biggest and best showcase for women's football ever seen in Europe.

"We have not only the ambition, but the tournament hosting experience, infrastructure and incredible spectator demand to ensure we would deliver a truly memorable tournament."

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123 comments

  • Comment posted by llan007, at 12:41 29 Aug 2018

    Great...and the BBC will give it maximum coverage..as its the only live football it can get. Its like watching paint dry.

  • Comment posted by GodBlessTheBand, at 12:33 29 Aug 2018

    Absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to parks and Sunday league playing fields to host the games

  • Comment posted by Ferruccio, at 12:23 29 Aug 2018

    What’s the average match attendance?

  • Comment posted by GALAXY, at 13:03 29 Aug 2018

    What will visiting fans make of England when they visit Rotherham?

    Doubt they'll come back

  • Comment posted by al, at 12:41 29 Aug 2018

    BBC women’s football should have its own separate section, a completely different game and audience!

  • Comment posted by The original jockstrap, at 12:20 29 Aug 2018

    Zzzzzzzz.

    Front page for this tripe again.

    Well done BBC for correctly representing us, as usual.

  • Comment posted by bigsimon7280, at 14:07 29 Aug 2018

    Can anyone tell me why there is a woman commentating on every single sport on TV now. Most of the women on there are has beens at best. The cricket for example has a woman who played for England in 2010...... what has she done since then? Golf has a woman who won nothing (0) on the european tour and now even rugby has a woman on there, WHY?????????

  • Comment posted by ChrisMM, at 12:45 29 Aug 2018

    Hopefully it will fail otherwise we'll have the BBC ramming this dross down our throats for the next three years.

  • Comment posted by Telefunken U47, at 13:29 29 Aug 2018

    Men's netball does not seem to garner the same interest by BBC as women's football so I don't feel the BBC are fairly representing both sexes.

  • Comment posted by Dave, at 12:56 29 Aug 2018

    Wow. A lot of people seem very angry about women's football for some inexplicable reason.

    Would be great to have the tournament here.

  • Comment posted by Wabaloolah, at 13:13 29 Aug 2018

    @28

    Mixed gender football tournaments would effectively be dominated by men so a pointless exercise in reality

  • Comment posted by cal, at 17:47 29 Aug 2018

    88 growing??

    Attendance for the women's league actually decreased from 2016-17 to 2017-18

    Hard not to read about it when it's shoved down our throats on here.

    Where's the HYS on Vanarama National League teams??

    They average higher attendances a game than the top tier women's league in the country!

  • Comment posted by The original jockstrap, at 13:05 29 Aug 2018

    To all you who do not understand the belittling comments, the problem is not with women, nor the women’s game, it is with the incessant, predictable BBC not giving the women’s game its own forum / platform, but in a befuddling PC obsessed fashion, promoting the sport via the popularity of the men’s game by placing the article alongside other stories which attract 10000x more traffic ie interest.

  • Comment posted by rjaggar, at 12:57 29 Aug 2018

    I do not understand belittling comments. So what if womens football is smaller than the mens game? Every sport is. The womens game is growing and this tournament will cost relative peanuts to host.

  • Comment posted by The original jockstrap, at 13:12 29 Aug 2018

    @28 Sri - it’s a good idea but unfortunately it won’t happen.

    Why would Serena Williams want to play 5 sets of tennis instead of 3 and get paid the same amount of money for 5/3 as much work.

    We all know in reality if what you suggested happened that she wouldn’t even make the qualifying round.

    That’s the problem, women and men are built differently, and physical sports highlight this.

  • Comment posted by Dave, at 12:48 29 Aug 2018

    @16 - Why not, look how many watched the women's matches at London 2012 and how many attended England games in the 2005 tournament and the women's game keeps growing.

    @7 Not really disorganised, no country is likely to need to build new stadiums or infrastructure for this, although the women's game is growing its unlikely that every fixture will be a 30-40k attendance sell out

  • Comment posted by OxfordUnitedFan, at 16:59 29 Aug 2018

    I'm sure BBC One will be screening all the games at prime time hours when sub-10,000 crowds (most of them free tickets) turn up to watch goalkeeping howler after goalkeeping howler.

    Liberals will celebrate the coverage without actually watching it.

  • Comment posted by U17043760, at 15:40 29 Aug 2018

    Wall to wall BBC coverage yet about 15 people watching each game.

    The radical left wing feminist BBC will push this for every penny of worth from your license fee.

  • Comment posted by U14986867, at 15:09 29 Aug 2018

    Here's the deal

    Eng can host it if the beeb agrees not to clog up the main channels with this

    The standard is nowhere near good enough to put on terrrestrial TV. If you want to show live sport make a proper investment and provide quality

    It's great as a participation sport but not for the viewer - wouldn't want a kick around at the local park to be televised wither

  • Comment posted by Mercury, at 18:09 29 Aug 2018

    Please don't waste our money on this!

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