Football hero Sir Geoff Hurst said Bristol would get a massive boost if it succeeded in becoming a host city for the 2018 World Cup.

Sir Geoff, who scored a hat-trick against West Germany when England won the tournament in 1966, said achieving such status would be a major benefit.

He was speaking during a visit to Bradley Stoke Community Festival, where he was involved with a McDonald’s football open day.

Sir Geoff is a McDonald’s football ambassador and in that role encourages youngsters to take up the game, while getting more adults trained as coaches. Support is also given to clubs at grassroots level.

The open day was organised by Mike Guerin, who is a franchisee for the restaurant chain in Bristol, with Bradley Stoke Football Club.

It involved coaching sessions, mini-tournaments and getting tips from Sir Geoff.

England is making a bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 and Bristol wants a slice of the action.

It is hoped that Bristol City’s proposed new stadium at Ashton Vale will be one of the venues for games and next month a team from the Football Association will visit the city to look as areas where “villages” for fans could be set up.

Sir Geoff said: “Any major sporting event, whether it’s the Olympics or the World Cup, automatically provides an interest for youngsters and can benefit the community.

“Bristol is one of the largest cities in the country, although it is competing against big established football grounds where there has been a lot of investment in the last 10 years or so.

“But I’m avid about getting all these major sporting events into this country.

“We have the most powerful league in the world and we’ve proved we can host big tournaments, such as the 1996 European championships, so we have everything here that is needed.”

Sir Geoff said there could even be youngsters among those who turned out for the Bradley Stoke event who could be the World Cup stars of the future.

He said: “There is so much for kids to get involved with these days, so it’s important that we get more of them playing football and more coaches to train them.”