The Football Association has today submitted its official bid to stage the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 in England and Brentford Football Club will be involved. UEFA’s deadline for bids to stage the tournament is 31 August 2018, with a final decision on the successful host nation to be taken by the UEFA Executive Committee on 3 December 2018. The FA bid includes plans for hosting matches all over the country, including at our new stadium.

Building work is well underway at our new stadium site with steel and concrete starting to appear from the ground. The Club plans to move in to the stadium in the summer of 2020 and at the end of that season, there is now a chance it will host international football. Wembley Stadium is earmarked to stage the tournament’s final in July 2021, a year after hosting the equivalent final for the Men’s Tournament.

The proposed cities and stadia included in the bid are:

Brighton - AMEX Stadium

London - Wembley Stadium, connected by EE, and Brentford Community Stadium

Milton Keynes - Stadium MK

Manchester - Manchester City Academy Stadium

Nottingham - Meadow Lane

Peterborough - ABAX Stadium

Rotherham - AESSEAL New York Stadium

Sheffield - Bramall Lane

Mark Devlin, Brentford FC Chief Executive, said: “It is a great honour to have been chosen as a one of the stadiums for the FA bid to stage the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 tournament. We are building a stadium that we believe will be a great home for Brentford FC. We want it to host big games and this would be a great start.

“Structural work is well underway and we look forward to moving in to our new home in 2020. The FA are confident in our building programme and it is a boost for the project to be included in the bid. As someone who has attended international tournaments in the past, I know what great occasions they are. To have that in our part of West London would be fantastic and we are all hoping the bid is successful.”

Martin Glenn, The FA’s chief executive officer, said: “Our bid to host UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 reflects our strong commitment to supporting and growing women’s and girl’s football in England. 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 UEFA Women’s 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.”

Baroness Sue Campbell, The FA’s director of women’s football, said: “We have made great strides in growing participation, support and success at all levels throughout women’s and girl’s football, of which we can be rightly proud.  In our Gameplan for Growth strategy, launched in March last year, we set ourselves some challenging targets which we are on course to achieve, but we are impatient to accelerate the development of the sport.  There is no question that the opportunity to host such a prestigious tournament would provide us with an incredible catalyst for the future growth of the game at all levels.”

The FA’s bid has received the full support of the UK Government.  Tracey Crouch, minister for sport and civil society, added: “On behalf of the UK Government, I give our wholehearted support for the bid to host the UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 in England.

“Our nation has a proud track record of successfully staging the most prestigious sporting events in the world.  Having recently hosted the Women’s Hockey World Cup and last year’s Women’s Cricket World Cup, we have demonstrated that the British public have a passion for supporting women’s sport at the highest level with record attendances.

“We are excited by the opportunity UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 presents, which will undoubtedly inspire thousands of women and girls to get active and take up football, whilst showcasing to the rest of Europe and the world our country’s capacity for delivering truly world class events.”

England previously staged the UEFA Women’s Euro 2005 at venues across the north-west of the country with 29,092 watching England’s opening win against Finland in Manchester a record for an opening group match. Earlier this year, St. George’s Park and stadiums across the Midlands and South Yorkshire welcomed the UEFA Men’s EURO U17 while Wembley Stadium will be a key venue when the UEFA EURO 2020 finals is played across 12 European cities.