The Women's National League Cup is an annual

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 c ...

cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA). It was renamed the FA Women's Premier League Cup from 1994 to 2018. The

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of the Cup included clubs from the

1991–92 WFA National League Premier Division The 1991–92 WFA National League Premier Division was the inaugural season of nationalised women's league football in England. The Women's Football Association (WFA) obtained a grant from the Sports Council in order to launch the league, d ...

and the winners were the second-tier

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, who beat

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

1–0 with a goal by

Naz Ball Naldra "Naz" Ball is a Welsh former football striker. She represented the Wales women's national football team and the English FA Women's Premier League clubs Arsenal and Wembley. Club career In 1991–92, the first season of England's national ...

. The

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

assumed the running of the competition in 1994–95. Clubs from league levels 1 and 2 competed in the Women's Premier League Cup tournament annually until 2009–10, with Arsenal the most frequent winners, in ten seasons. From 2011 onwards, the top-league teams played in the

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

instead. Since 2011, the most successful clubs in the Premier/National League Cup have been Tottenham and Blackburn with two final victories each. The current Women's National League Cup is open to the 72 teams in the

FA Women's National League The FA Women's National League, formerly WFA National League and FA Women's Premier League (WPL), is a group of six football divisions run by the English Football Association. Founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, the League includ ...

–

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and

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divisions, plus the four regional Division One leagues. It is the women's football equivalent to the men's

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

of third- and fourth-tier teams, although the competitions are organised by different governing bodies.

Format

The competitions format has changed having previously also included a preceding group stage prior to the knockout rounds. After the league restructuring of the Women's Premier League in 2015 up to 72 teams are eligible to participate. At first all teams are drawn against each other in the determining round. The winning teams then are drawn into either a preliminary round or directly into the first round of the cup. Thus 32 teams then play the first round. The losers of the determining round play a preliminary round and then a round of 32 onwards for the

FA Women's National League Plate The FA Women's National League Plate is an association football tournament organised by the FA Women's National League (WNL). It is the WNL's second league cup competition, played alongside the National League Cup, and is a single-elimination kno ...

, first played out in 2015–16.

1993 Wembley final

The 1992–93 competition ended with a final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. Before a sparse crowd, Arsenal beat Knowsley United 3–0 to retain the trophy. This was one of very few competitive women's club games known to have been held at the old Wembley Stadium; it also remains the only women's League Cup final to be played at Wembley. The match was held prior to the 1993 Football League Third Division play-off Final. Arsenal manager

Vic Akers Victor David Akers, OBE (born 24 August 1946) is a football manager and former player who was most recently the assistant manager at Boreham Wood. Akers played as a left back. He was also manager of Arsenal Ladies winning numerous trophies wit ...

recalled that the women's teams were not given use of the main dressing rooms.

List of seasons and finals

Level 1 and 2 league cup competition: Level 2 and 3 cup competition: Level 3 and 4 cup competition (Women's Premier League Cup, renamed National League Cup in 2018–19):

Performance by club

References

External links

Official Site
– TheFA.com
Results 2014/15
{{Women's football in England National association football league cups

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...