Beginnings In February 1987 the
Women's Football Association (WFA) appointed
Liz Deighan to run a women's national under-21 team. Deighan had been a star midfielder in the England team which reached the
1984 European Competition for Women's Football. Four years later Deighan was not re–appointed and
John Bilton took over. The team folded shortly afterwards because the WFA had run out of money. Eight of England's squad at the
1995 FIFA Women's World Cup had come through Deighan's U-21 team, including
Pauline Cope,
Karen Burke and
Louise Waller.
FA sanctioned team In summer 2004,
The Football Association (FA) decided to reconstitute the U-21 team in order to give women a higher level of play to better prepare them for the full national team. Senior team manager
Hope Powell held a four-day camp in Shropshire and announced: "This is a major step forward for our international teams and will bridge the gap between Under-19 and Senior levels. We have been observing players in this age bracket for the last six months and with the clubs' assistance I believe we can make this a real success." Powell installed her full-time assistant with the senior team,
Brent Hills, as coach of the team, which remained an U-21 selection from 2004 through 2008.
Competing as an U-23 team (2008–2018) 2008 saw the change of England's youth national women's team moved to the U-23 level. The move was made by the FA in response to age-level changes
FIFA had made to its oldest women's youth competition, now named
FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The age limit was raised from being a U-19 tournament to a U-20 tournament. This adjustment, coupled with a newly introduced U-23 age limit to the
Nordic Cup, prompted the FA to rethink and eventually change the youth development team.
Return of U-21 team (2018–2021) Following a review in September 2018, the FA announced the amalgamation of the U23s and U20s squads to reform an Under-21s age group, which would become the top tier of the nation's new professional development phase. The move would align England's structure to that used in other European countries to allow for more age-appropriate games and better manage individual player development post-U20 World Cup for those who have genuine senior team potential. The FA's head of women's development Kay Cossington and senior team manager
Phil Neville stressed the move as an important part of the wider, long-term plan prior to the following summer's
World Cup. The then U20s manager
Mo Marley was announced as the team's first head coach.
Move back to U-23 team (2021–present) == Eligibility ==