On Monday, clubs voted to expand the English Women's Super League (WSL) from 12 to 14 teams and make the Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2) -- formerly known as the Championship -- fully professional. The FA's approval of the changes means they will come into effect for the start of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
The changes mark a turning point for the league, which is bidding to increase competitiveness and financial security for teams in the top two tiers. Having considered over 20 formats -- including the Swiss model seen in the Champions League, no relegation, split leagues, and playoffs -- the double round-robin format (with teams playing each other twice) is the one the league settled on for a number of reasons.
However, after Blackburn Rovers became the most recent team to forfeit their place in the second tier, dropping to an amateur status as they were unable to meet the new financial requirements, the league is hoping that the changes will increase sustainability in the top two tiers while improving the state of the English football pyramid.
Here's everything you need to know about what has been decided.
How many teams will compete in the WSL?
After staying as 12 teams since the WSL was formed in 2010, the league will expand for the first time to 14 teams. At the end of the 2025-26 season, the top two teams from WSL 2 will be promoted to the WSL. There will then be a playoff between the 12th-placed WSL team -- who would normally be relegated from the top tier -- and the third placed WSL 2 team.
And in WSL 2?
WSL 2 will remain with 12 teams for the foreseeable future. The league believes expanding too quickly would create a drop in quality and cause an issue for sustainability. But WSL 2 will move to being fully professional for the first time.
How is it decided who is promoted after that?
From the 2026-27 season and onwards, the winners of WSL 2 will be promoted to the WSL. For the second tier, the winner of each division of the FA Women's National League (WNL) will be automatically promoted.
Clubs can still be relegated, right?
Yes, it will remain after the league considered scrapping relegation altogether, which sparked significant backlash from fans.
The 14th-placed WSL team will be automatically relegated. Then the 13th-placed team will enter a playoff to remain in the top tier against the WSL 2 runners up.
The bottom two teams in WSL 2 will automatically be relegated to the third tier.
What is the knock-on effect further down the football pyramid?
Again, the league, though not in control of the pyramid outside the top two tiers, believes that expanding the WSL and keeping WSL 2 at 12 teams will increase competitiveness and allow teams in third tier to grow.
Teams wanting to be promoted from the third tier will need to apply and meet the criteria of a fully professional side to earn passage, following changes to the FA's regulations for the second tier.
The WSL believes that it is better to allow teams to grow on their own timelines rather than forcing them to become fully professional before it is sustainable just to fill more spots made vacant by expansion.
How many more games will there be? And how much longer will the WSL season go on?
The expansion of the WSL will add two more games. But after extensive consideration of the calendar, the league believes it can accommodate this, while keeping the integral three-week winter break and leaving space for FIFA and UEFA international windows.
Having 14 teams would mean the league needs 26 matchdays. There are 24 available weekends, so two midweek games will likely take place -- the League Cup will also stay with the current format -- so this has been factored in, and the WSL is confident there will be no issues.
The Championship usually starts a week before the WSL and finishes a week earlier, but for the 2025-26 season, both leagues will begin on the same week -- six weeks after the conclusion of Euro 2025 -- with the WSL running until slightly later at the end of the season.
Are clubs and players in favor of the changes?
It was a unanimous shareholder vote, meaning clubs were in favor. The league also explained a rigorous consulting process with players, fans, managers and stakeholders, ensuring that all parties were aware of the breadth of the changes and were on board.
What else do we need to know?
The league is also focused on trying to even out the amount of games. International players competing at the top of the table, going deep into the cup competitions and in the UEFA Champions League, play far more games than non-internationals at the bottom of the table -- almost double the amount in some cases. The league wants to try and level this out but knows it will be a tough ask.
What does this mean for the women's game?
The belief is that the expansion will increase the competitiveness in the women's game and also secure financial sustainability. Though some sources have told ESPN they have reservations that expanding the WSL may not be sustainable, as most WSL 2 clubs can't match the financial investment at the top of the WSL.
In recent years there has been yo-yoing between the top-two tiers, with teams being promoted to the WSL then relegated after one season, like Crystal Palace last season and Bristol City the season before. Some in the game are concerned that it may be the same teams jumping between the two leagues: those who are not able to sustain themselves in the WSL but are too good to drop further in the WSL 2 table.
The league has stated that it will continue to monitor and tweak the recent changes if the sustainability of teams in either tier is at risk.