Wrexham's Cae Ras to form part of UK World Cup bid

A redeveloped Cae Ras in Wrexham is one of the stadiums Wales has put forward as part of the United Kingdom's bid to host the 2035 Women's World Cup.

Fifa announced in April that Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland had provided the only "valid" bid to stage the tournament, and the home nations presented more details on their host cities and stadiums on Friday.

Three of the stadiums under consideration are in Wales: Cardiff City Stadium, the Principality Stadium, which will be known as the National Stadium of Wales for the purpose of this bid, and Wrexham's Cae Ras.

Its current capacity is only 12,600 but the ambitious Hollywood-owned club have already renovated the historic old ground, with plans to expand further.

The Principality Stadium, the home of Welsh rugby in Cardiff city centre which will also host the opening game of the men's Euro 2028, holds 74,500.

Cardiff City Stadium, where Wales' men's and women's national football teams play, has a capacity of a little more than 33,000.

It might be that only two Welsh stadiums are used in 2035, with Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney suggesting that one of the venues in Cardiff will miss out.

"We're putting forward three stadiums. It'll be two that we actually finally get to because we've got to make a decision between Cardiff City Stadium or the National Stadium of Wales as it's known in the Uefa parlance," he told BBC Sport Wales.

"We'd like it, as with Welsh Government, to be both north and south [Wales]. We're bringing Euro 2028 here which has six matches, with the opening match in Cardiff, but for the Women's World Cup in 2035 we want to make this a pan-Wales event, and to have it in the north of Wales will be very special to us."

Wrexham's Cae Ras is the oldest international football stadium in the world still in use, having hosted Wales' first fixture in 1877.

It has staged senior men's and women's international fixtures in recent years but would need to be expanded and modernised to be used for the 2035 World Cup.

"Wrexham are building the Kop at the moment but they would have plans to develop that further before 2035," Mooney added.

"I don't know the precise number, but I do know that it would be above the threshold that we need to host the Women's World Cup in 2035.

"There was huge support from Wrexham Council and from governments and so on but, as they continue on their journey towards the Premier League and as they develop the women's side of the game, they'll want the city to continue to develop.

"The infrastructure needs to continue to develop around it so the 2035 Women's World Cup gives them a great chance to have something to aim towards apart from being in the Premier League.

"Also to have a World Cup finals coming to Wrexham is another great layer on top of the story that's already produced so many great layers for Wrexham."

As for the potential redevelopment of Cardiff City Stadium, Mooney said: "What could be interesting for us as a national association is we continue to do well as national teams and as Cardiff City hopefully get promotion this year and follow that up with challenging for the Premier League.

"I hope in the future then maybe we could look to work with Cardiff City Council and the owners of Cardiff City to develop that a bit further.

"There's the space at both ends to develop the capacity there. That's a bit off I would say but, as it stands, Cardiff City Stadium is well above the threshold in terms of hosting World Cup games.

"Obviously the National Stadium of Wales is, as will Wrexham be by then."