The Chinese Women's Super League (CWSL) is the top level women's
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
league in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. It was called the Chinese Women's National Football League from 2011 to 2014.
History
The league started in 1997 as the Chinese Women's Premier Football League. The name Women's Super League was first adopted in 2004. During the 2011 to 2014 seasons, the league was renamed to Women's National Football League and discontinued the practice of
promotion and relegation
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...
due to a lack of available teams and playing talent.
In 2015, the
Chinese Football Association
The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams and administers the country' ...
relaunched the league, again as the Women's Super League and with an affiliated second division, CWFL. It also gained a title sponsor,
LeTV Holdings Co Ltd. The league signed a five-year deal with Spanish apparel company
Kelme to provide uniforms.
Investment in women's clubs accelerated after the 2016 season with major corporate sponsors and investors, such as
Quanjian Group and
Guotai Junan Securities
Guotai Junan Securities Co., Ltd. (GTJA) is one of the largest investment banks and securities companies in the People's Republic of China.
Overview
Guotai Junan Securities Co. Ltd., was established on August 18, 1999 after the merger of forme ...
, raising player salaries and recruiting high-profile players from top-division leagues in Europe. This included
Brazilian star
Cristiane from
Paris Saint-Germain
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...
to
Changchun Zhuoyue,
2016 Toppserien
The 2016 Toppserien was the 30th season of the women's football top level league in Norway. LSK Kvinner FK were the defending champions and defended their title.
League table
Relegation play-offs
Medkila won the relegation play-offs 4–3 and 2 ...
golden boot winner
Isabell Herlovsen
Isabell Lehn Herlovsen (born 23 June 1988) is a Norwegian former football player.
She last played for Våleranga and Kolbotn after moving home from China and the club Jiangsu Suning. She plays as a midfielder and a striker.
Herlovsen is the ...
from
LSK Kvinner FK
LSK Kvinner Fotballklubb is a Norwegian women's football club from Lillestrøm. They currently play in Toppserien, the top division of Norwegian football. The club was founded as Setskog/Høland Fotballklubb on 10 October 1989.
History
The ...
to
Jiangsu Suning F.C.
Jiangsu Football Club (), later known as Jiangsu Sainty F.C. (2000–2016) and Jiangsu Suning F.C. (2016–2021), was a professional football club that participated in the Chinese Super League since 2009 until its dissolution in 2021. The tea ...
, and
Nigerian
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...
star
Asisat Oshoala
Asisat Lamina Oshoala MON (born 9 October 1994) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Spanish Liga F club FC Barcelona and the Nigeria women's national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest African female foo ...
from
Arsenal L.F.C.
Arsenal Women Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is an English professional women's association football, women's football club based in London Borough of Islington, Islington, London, England. The club plays in the FA Women's Su ...
and
Cameroonian star
Gaelle Enganamouit from
FC Rosengård
FC Rosengård, formerly Malmö FF Dam (1970–2007) and LdB FC Malmö (2007–2013), is a professional football club based in Malmö, Scania, Sweden. The team was established as Malmö FF Dam in 1970. It started out with playing 7 seasons in th ...
to
Dalian Quanjian F.C.
Current clubs
Champions
The list of CWSL champions:
*1997:
Guangdong Haiyin
*1998:
Shanghai Yuandong
*1999:
Beijing Chengjian
*2000:
Shanghai STV Youlizi
*2001:
Shanghai STV
*2002:
Beijing Chengjian
*2003:
Shanghai STV
*2004:
Shanghai STV
*2005:
Shanghai STV
*2006:
Shanghai STV
*2007:
Tianjin Huisen
*2008:
Dalian Shide
Dalian Shide was a professional Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning province, China who played in China's football league system between 1955 and 2012. Their home stadiums were the 55,843 capacity Dalian People's Stadium and then late ...
*2009:
Jiangsu Huatai
*2010:
Shanghai STV
*2011:
Team Shanghai
*2012:
Dalian Shide
Dalian Shide was a professional Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning province, China who played in China's football league system between 1955 and 2012. Their home stadiums were the 55,843 capacity Dalian People's Stadium and then late ...
*2013:
Dalian Aerbin
Dalian Professional Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning, that participates in the China Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). Their home stadium is Dalian Sports Ce ...
*2014:
Team Shanghai
*
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...
:
Shanghai Guotai Jun'an
*
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
:
Dalian Quanjian
*
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
:
Dalian Quanjian
*
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
:
Dalian Quanjian
*
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
:
Jiangsu Suning
Jiangsu Football Club (), later known as Jiangsu Sainty F.C. (2000–2016) and Jiangsu Suning F.C. (2016–2021), was a professional football club that participated in the Chinese Super League since 2009 until its dissolution in 2021. The tea ...
*
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
:
Wuhan Jianghan University
*
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
:
Wuhan Jianghan University
See also
*
Sport in China
**
Football in China
Football in China includes the practice of American football, arena football, association football, paper football and other "football"-termed sports in the territory of People's Republic of China that does not include Hong Kong and Macau.
Ameri ...
***
Women's football in China
Women's football in China is one of the traditional powers of women's football. China has only 6,000 to 7,000 registered female players above age 12, according to the Chinese soccer federation statistics. China has fallen behind other countries ...
*
China women's national football team
The China women's national football team (, recognized as China PR by FIFA) represents the People's Republic of China in international women's football competitions and is governed by the Chinese Football Association. China women's team won si ...
References
External links
Official website theCFA.cn
Leagueat futbol24.com
Official Website of the Federation (in Chinese)
Past and current leagueseasons (in Chinese)
{{Top level women's association football leagues around the world
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
1
Summer association football leagues
Women's sports leagues in China
Sports leagues established in 1997
Professional sports leagues in China