Lionesses set major tournament target to "turbo charge" growth of the women's game

The Football Association wants England to "turbo charge" the growth of women and girls' football by winning a major tournament within the next four years.

The governing body has set out its blueprint for how it wants the women's game to develop by 2024, challenging the Lionesses and Team GB to win the rearranged Olympic Games, Euro 2022 or the 2023 FIFA World Cup.

"With the home Euros, we really believe we have an opportunity to turbo charge all of the things that we want to do," said FA director of women's football, Baroness Campbell.

"We, of course, want to win a major tournament. But to do that, we don't want to just win a major tournament once. We want to continue to win major tournaments for years ahead." 

There are a total of eight ambitious objectives, including: equal access in schools and clubs; creating the best professional leagues and competitions in the world; and supporting the development of "exceptional" coaches at every level of the sport.

The FA also wants to help the development and training of referees at all levels, although it stopped short of committing to have professional officials for the elite end of the game. 

England captain Steph Houghton said: "When I and many of my team-mates were girls, opportunities to play the game were few and far between, so to see the breadth and scale of the FA's ambitions in the next four years is extremely exciting."