England to bid for 2021 Women's Euros after success of 2017 tournament

FA chief executive Martin Glenn confirms plan to continue the growth of women's football with bid to host the European Championship in four years' time

The Football Association intends to bid for the right to host the 2021 European Women's Championship (Getty)

England will bid for the Women's European Championships in 2021 following the success of this year's competition in the Netherlands, the Football Association have announced.

The Lionesses have, across the last two major tournaments, captured the attention of the nation with their run to the semi-finals in the 2015 World Cup in Canada and the 2017 Euros last month.

The bid comes as the FA look to grow the number of women taking up football in England by 2021, when they hope that the number of participants will have doubled across the country.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn is aiming to exceed the standards already set at those two previous major tournaments and wants the Lionesses to continue to install pride into the national team.

He said: "The Lionness' performances at the Euros this summer gave the country great pride. It also showed the significant impact that hosting a major European tournament can have on growing and developing women's football.

"The KNVB and Uefa really raised the bar, hosting a fantastic tournament, and we hope and believe we could meet those standards.

"Uefa share our ambitions to grow the women's game and we believe that together we can host a tournament that would celebrate women's football as well as inspiring the next generation and creating lasting opportunities for all."

England's semi-final defeat by tournament hosts Netherlands last month generated a peak audience of 4m viewers in the UK alone, with the Championship Uefa's biggest ever female tournament in terms of audience.

The 2021 Euros will also come 100 years after the FA implemented a ban on women playing football that would last 50 years, the bid hoped to see those negative memories forgotten by staging a tournament that the country last held in 2005.