England Women named Euro 2021 hosts

UEFA have confirmed that England have been selected to host UEFA Women’s EURO 2021.

Despite being the only bidders, the English Football Association (FA) had to meet strict guidelines before they were announced as hosts by the UEFA Executive Committee.

The Lionesses reached the semi-finals of Euro 2017 where they lost 3-0 to eventual winners the Netherlands and have qualified for next years World Cup in France.

Nine venues have been proposed for the Euro 2021 tournament with the home of English football, Wembley, hosting the final.

The other eight venues are Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, Manchester City’s Academy Stadium, Notts County’s Meadow Lane, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium, Brentford’s Community Stadium, MK Dons’ Stadium MK, Peterborough’s Abax Stadium and Rotherham’s New York Stadium.

Sixteen teams will compete in the tournament in July 2021 with the teams being drawn into four groups of four and the top two in each section progressing to the knockout phase.

The draw for the qualifying group stage will be held on 22 February next year.

Following that, the qualifiers are to be played from August 2019 to September 2020 which will determine 12 of the finalists, with the play-offs determining the last three entrants in October 2020.