England to host UEFA Women’s Euro 2021

England has today (Monday) been awarded hosting rights to the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 national team football tournament, with nine stadia across the country having been proposed to stage matches.

England hosted the event back in 2005 when it was an eight-team tournament. The 2021 edition will be contested by 16 teams, with Wembley poised to stage the final a year after hosting the final of the men’s Euro 2020.

Wembley has been shortlisted as a proposed host venue for Euro 2021 alongside the Brentford Community Stadium, Amex Stadium (Brighton), Etihad Stadium (Manchester), Stadium MK (Milton Keynes), City Ground (Nottingham), New York Stadium (Rotherham), Bramall Lane (Sheffield) and St Mary’s Stadium (Southampton). Wembley will only stage the final.

The English Football Association was the only bidder for the event but still had to meet certain guidelines before being awarded hosting rights by UEFA.

England will qualify for the tournament automatically, with the remaining hopefuls to be drawn into nine qualifying groups of five or six.

The Netherlands hosted the most recent edition of the Women’s Euro in 2017, with the host nation defeating Denmark 4-2 in the final to lift the trophy.

Meanwhile, UEFA has confirmed that Portugal will host the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League Finals next year. Porto’s Estádio do Dragão and the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques in Guimaraes have been proposed as host venues in Portugal’s bid dossier.

In March, Poland, Portugal and Italy all expressed an interest in staging the Finals. All three nations were in group A3 of the Nations League, ensuring the winners would be hosts.

The semi-finals are scheduled to be held on June 5 and June 6 next year, with the third-place match and final to take place on June 9. Host bidders were required to specify two venues with a net seating capacity of at least 30,000, ideally located in the same city or around 150km apart.

Portugal will be joined by England, Switzerland and the Netherlands at the first-ever Nations League Finals.