The Expansion of the WSL: Competitiveness, Commercialisation and Culture

After another historic summer for English women’s football, the Women’s Super League (“WSL”) and the Women Championship, now rebranded to the Women’s Super League 2 (“WSL2”), are set to resume for their 2025-26 campaigns. Against a backdrop of continuously improving participation and professionalisation in the sport, the forthcoming season will see the first step in a landmark expansion plan, designed to accelerate both competitiveness and commercial success at the top of the women’s game.

What are the changes?

Up until this season, promotion and relegation between the WSL and WSL2 was a straight swap between the first-placed WLS2 team and the last-placed WSL team. While the limited opportunities for movement between the two twelve-team divisions created stability for most teams (which can be commercially advantageous), a one-up-one-down system often inhibits jeopardy towards the end of the season as relegation and promotion battles become predictable or involve fewer teams. This issue was especially acute in the WSL2, because the sole promotion spot – for the division’s champions – meant that elevation to the WSL quickly became out of reach for all but a few teams, leaving most of the teams with little to play for and discouraging investment in a push for promotion.

The current campaign is a transition year aimed at expanding the WSL. For the 2025-26 season only, there will be two automatic promotion spots from the WSL2, while the third-placed WSL2 team will enter a promotion/relegation play-off against the last-placed WSL team. This will create a fourteen-team WSL for 2026-27.

From 2026-27 onwards, automatic promotion and relegation will return for the WSL2 champions and the bottom WSL club respectively, while the thirteenth-placed WSL team and the second-placed WSL2 will contest a promotion/relegation play-off. The structure of the promotion and relegation system between the WSL2 and the regionalised third division is yet to be finalised.

What is the commercial context?

The landscape of women’s football in England has been transformed in recent years. The WSL was fully professionalised in 2018, and since the start of the 2024-25 season, the top two divisions of women’s football in England have been overseen by Women’s Super League Football Limited (previously Women’s Professional Leagues Limited), an arrangement which mirrors the independence of the men’s Premier League. The expansion of the WSL will complement the joint efforts of the company and the Football Association (“The FA”) to increase the professionalisation of the sport, and forms part of the broader long-term objectives to establish two entirely professional tiers of women’s football, alongside improving player support, academy training, and club infrastructure.

To achieve these objectives, increased commercial success will be vital. The average WSL club revenue has already more than doubled in comparison to 2021 levels, and the challenge will be to ensure that this growth both continues in the WSL itself and permeates down to the lower divisions.

Attendance at WSL matches dipped by almost 10% in the 2024-25 WSL season. It will therefore be hoped that the expanded format will reinvigorate interest, with greater intrigue and competitiveness offering a potential boost to both the WSL and WSL2.

Further changes are also on the horizon. A new agreement with broadcasters introduces a core game time of 12pm on Sundays, a trial of Friday evening fixtures in the WSL, and the broadcast of all WSL2 matches on YouTube. These adjustments are aimed at tackling the issue of suboptimal and inconsistent kick-off times, and expanding the overall audience for the women’s game.

It will also be hoped that the improved opportunities for promotion and greater competition more generally throughout the top two tiers will generate increased investment, both internally from the clubs, and from external investors who follow the likes of Michelle Kang at London City Lionesses and Alexis Ohanian at Chelsea FC Women. Investment from ambitious owners can improve the quality of the product, which ought to drive further growth and competitiveness.

Above all, it is important that women’s football leaves behind episodes such as the financial collapse of Yeovil Town Ladies, which fell into administration in 2019, and subsequently fell through the leagues after the renewal of its WSL licence was denied, or the recent decisions of Blackburn Women to withdraw from the WSL2 and Wolves Women to refrain from applying for a license to join the WSL2 because the clubs’ owners were unwilling to meet the requisite funding requirements.

Will grassroots women’s football benefit?

According to The FA’s Inspiring Positive Change strategy report, the number of women and girls playing football increased by 56 percent between 2020 and 2024, while the number of female coaches grew by 88 percent during the same period – figures that are only likely to rise further after the success of the Lionesses’ Euro 2025 campaign in Switzerland.

While it is apparent that the changes to the WSL and WSL2 are primarily commercial and logistical, an improved competitive structure in the top leagues and a constantly growing footballing culture in the women’s game ought to continue to encourage sustained grassroots participation and open clearer pathways into the sport, bringing long-term physical and mental benefits to those who are involved as players, coaches, fans and officials. The expansion therefore aims not only to reshape the elite tiers but also to lay stronger foundations for the future of women’s football in England.

 

Authored by 

Donna Bartley
Partner

and

Jonathon Huggett
Paralegal