NORTHWICH hopes to play its part if one of women's football's biggest tournament comes to the UK.

The FA has officially entered a bid on Wednesday, August 29, to host the 2021 UEFA Women's European Championship

With Cheshire FA's ambitious 'Vision 20/20' hoping to make Northwich a centre of excellence for the women's game, it is thought the town could be involved in the bid process.

Stuart Manifould, business development and operations manager at Cheshire FA, said: "We are extremely excited that The FA have today released news of their bid to host the 2021 UEFA Women’s European Championships.

"We have made no secret of our desire to double female participation in the game and to potentially have such a competition in this country will create opportunities for thousands of people to watch and get involved in football at every level.

"With our Vision 20/20 project due to be operational before the tournament begins, we hope we can support this bid should England win the right to host.

"All at Cheshire FA whole heartedly support The FA’s bid and we wish the team the very best of luck."

England last hosted the tournament in 2005, and reached the semi-finals of the 2017 rendition in the Netherlands, losing to the hosts who went on to take the title.

Unveiled in May, the £70 million Vision 20/20 project would bring two FIFA-standard Grassmaster pitches – one of which will be flanked by a stadium of up to 3,000 capacity – to an unconfirmed new site, thought to be in the Dane Valley.

Further developments at the state-of-the-art complex include three 3G pitches, six grass pitches, a youth zone and luxury hotel and spa.

In addition, a club from the top flight of the women’s game – WSL1 – thought to be Everton Ladies, is in talks to move its operation to the site.

Stuart said: "We are due to complete site testing by the end of September with a view to submitting planning permission by November.

"We are on target at the moment and we hope to have started construction by July 2019, with a view to being operational by December 2020/January 2021."

The county FA is working in partnership with Cheshire West and Chester Council and ION Developments.