Meadow will be a Euro venue

Greenhous Meadow has been selected as one of six venues that will be used if England win the bid to host U21 European Championships in 2013.

It is a majour coup for the club and it really demonstrates the off-field progress the club have made in recent years.

The Meadow is joined on the list by the City Ground (Nottingham Forest), Pride Park (Derby), Meadow Lane (Notts County) and the b2net stadium (Chesterfield) – while Wembley has also been selected to host the final.

The Football Association are this week showing UEFA delegates around the four Midlands cities, as well as Birmingham, as they conduct a technical inspection which will form the basis on a report on the quality of infrastructure, stadia, transport and hotels.

Shrewsbury only moved into the 9,875 capacity arena in 2007 and will see decisions like this as even further justification for doing so.



“It’s a huge opportunity to stage at least three games,” general manager Jon Harris told BBC Radio Shropshire.

“Just imagine: the cream of Holland, Italy, Spain and, of course, England playing here at Shrewsbury.”

“This opportunity isn’t just good news for local football fans – it would also mean thousands of tourists coming to Shrewsbury and to Shropshire.”

England are bidding to host the tournament on these shores for the first time and will compete with Bulgaria, Israel and the Czech Republic for the right to do so. A decision will be made by UEFA in December.