Official: Women s Football Premier League will expand to 14 teams, introducing up to three upgrade places per season

According to the official website of the FA, at today's Women's Super League (WSL) shareholder meeting, with the approval of the FA Board of Directors, the clubs voted to expand the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) to 14 teams starting from the 2026/27 season.

The new competition system will adopt a double round-robin system, and introduce an automatic promotion and relegation system and play-offs to enhance the competitiveness of England's women's football. In order to expand the BWSL to 14 teams in the 2026/27 season, the meeting agreed to be promoted to the BWSL at most three teams from Barclays Women's Premier League 2 (BWSL2). The top two teams will be directly upgraded, while the 12th BWSL team and the third BWSL2 team will play the playoffs after the end of the 2025/26 season (the specific time is to be determined).

BWSL2 will continue to maintain the size of 12 teams and increase the chances of upgrading from the North and South Top Leagues of the FA Women's National League (WNL) at the end of the 2025/26 season. These upgraded quotas will fill the vacancy created by BWSL's military expansion. The specific upgrade method and its impact on low-level leagues will be confirmed by the FA in the future.

Starting from the 2026/27 season, the BWSL game format will remain in a double round-robin format, and the top three teams will be qualified to participate in the European Women's Champions League. The 14th-ranked BWSL team will be automatically relegated, and the BWSL2 champion will be directly upgraded. In addition, a playoff will be introduced, with the BWSL ranked 13th team competing for an upgrade place with the BWSL2 ranked 2nd team.

WSL Football CEO Nikki Doucet said: "In the past few months, WSL Football has led a comprehensive and rigorous consulting process that has been supported by research and analysis, exploring a variety of solutions that can drive the development of women's football. Our priority is to find a path that benefits the entire women's football pyramid system, and we believe this new development will raise the minimum standards, create distinctions, and inspire investment in all aspects. If approved by the FA Board of Directors, the expansion of BWSL to 14 teams will stimulate the flow between the league and increase opportunities. The introduction of the promotion and relegation play-off will bring a unique competitive atmosphere for women's football and introduce a high-attention, high-confrontational game."

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