June 17 – English women’s football is set for a significant shake-up as the Women’s Super League (WSL) prepares to expand to 14 teams from the 2026/27 season and introduce a new relegation-promotion playoff.
The changes, led by Chief Executive of Women’s Professional League Ltd (WPLL) Nikki Doucet, were approved at a shareholders’ meeting this week and now await final sign-off from the Football Association board. If ratified, the WSL will grow from 12 to 14 clubs, with the shift beginning at the end of the 2025/26 campaign.
As part of the new format, the bottom WSL team will be relegated automatically, while the 13th-placed side will face WSL 2’s third-best club in a playoff for a spot in the top flight.
The top two WSL 2 teams will gain automatic promotion. The second tier will remain a 12-team division, with further promotion opportunities from tier three expected, although details are still to be confirmed by the FA.
In each of the past two seasons, promoted sides from the Championship have struggled to keep pace with the rest of the WSL, highlighting the growing gap in quality. The WSL hopes expanding promotion opportunities and adding a playoff will help address that imbalance and offer more clubs a realistic route to the top.
At the same time, however, clubs across the pyramid are grappling with the financial realities of meeting stricter WSL and WSL 2 licensing standards.
Blackburn Rovers recently withdrew their women’s team from next season’s second tier, citing costs that no longer align with their budget. Barnsley’s women’s side, in the fourth tier, shut down entirely, claiming that funding from the top divisions “does not trickle down sufficiently.”
If the expansion goes ahead, the number of league matches per WSL team will increase from 22 to 26. These changes fall within the WSL’s current £65 million broadcast deal with Sky Sports and the BBC, but the league has not yet confirmed whether the broadcasters will show more games — including the new playoff — under the revised structure.
The move away from discussions of a US-style closed league — which had reportedly been on the table — will be welcomed by many. While such a format might have guaranteed financial stability for top-tier clubs, it would have cut off upward mobility for those below, stalling the growth of the wider pyramid.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1750198179labto1750198179ofdlr1750198179owedi1750198179sni@g1750198179niwe.1750198179yrrah1750198179