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
Women's football has been played in England for over a century, sharing a common history with the men's game as the country in which the Laws of the Game were codified.
Women's football was originally very popular in the early 20th century, b ...
. Established in 2010, it is run by
the Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...
and features twelve fully professional teams.
The league replaced the
FA Women's Premier League National Division
The FA Women's Premier League National Division (originally WFA National League Premier Division) was a football division in England. From 1991 until 2010, the National Division functioned as the top league in English women's football. Durin ...
as the highest level of women's football in England, with eight teams competing in the
inaugural 2011 season. In the WSL's first two seasons, there was no relegation from the division.
The WSL discarded the winter football season for six years, between 2011 and 2016, playing through the summer instead (from March until October). Since
2017–18, the WSL has operated as a winter league running from September to May, as was traditional before 2011.
From season 2014 to 2017–18, the Women's Super League consisted of two divisions – FA WSL 1 and
FA WSL 2 – and brought a promotion and relegation system to the WSL. From 2018–19, the second division was renamed the
FA Women's Championship
The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2).
WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...
.
The WSL champions, runners-up and third-placed team qualify for the
UEFA Women's Champions League
The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA.
The ...
the following season. The current Women's Super League champions are
Chelsea, who won their fifth title in the
2021–22 season.
History
The FA WSL was due to start in 2010 to replace the
FA Women's Premier League National Division
The FA Women's Premier League National Division (originally WFA National League Premier Division) was a football division in England. From 1991 until 2010, the National Division functioned as the top league in English women's football. Durin ...
as the top level of women's football in England but was deferred for a year due to the
global economic downturn. Sixteen clubs applied for 8 places in the inaugural season of the league:
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 ...
,
Barnet
Barnet may refer to:
People
*Barnet (surname)
* Barnet (given name)
Places United Kingdom
*Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below.
*East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...
,
Birmingham City,
Bristol Academy,
Chelsea,
Colchester United,
Doncaster Rovers Belles,
Everton,
Leeds Carnegie
Leeds Carnegie was a brand name used by several sports teams associated with the Carnegie School of Physical Education, now part of Leeds Beckett University. These include:
Current
* Leeds Carnegie Handball Club
Changed name
* Leeds Carnegie (ba ...
,
Leicester City,
Lincoln Ladies
Notts County Ladies Football Club was a women's football club based in Nottingham, England. Like the club's male affiliate Notts County FC, they played their home games at Meadow Lane.
Notts County Ladies were created in 2014 when Lincoln L ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
,
Millwall Lionesses,
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...
,
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
, and
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
. Leeds Carnegie later withdrew their application. Women's Premier League clubs
Blackburn Rovers and
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
declined to apply. FA Chief Executive
Ian Watmore described the creation of the league as a "top priority" in February 2010.
The
inaugural WSL season kicked-off on 13 April 2011 — at Imperial Fields, Chelsea's home ground — with a match between Chelsea and Arsenal, which Chelsea lost 1–0.
For the 2014 season a second division was created named
FA WSL 2, with nine teams and one team being relegated from the WSL 1. WSL 1 remained as eight teams, with the WSL 2 having ten teams. The new WSL 1 licence was awarded to
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
. Doncaster Rovers Belles were relegated to the WSL 2. They appealed against their demotion, but were unsuccessful.
In December 2014, the FA WSL announced a two-year plan to expand the WSL 1 from an eight to a ten-team league. Two teams were promoted from the WSL 2 at the end of the 2015 season, while one team was relegated to the WSL 2 with the same happening at the end of the 2016 season. Also, for the first time, a team from the FA Women's Premier League earned promotion to WSL 2, effectively connecting the WSL to the rest of the
English women's football pyramid.
The FA announced in July 2016 that the league would move from a summer league format to a winter one in line with the traditional football calendar in England, with matches played from September to May the following year. A shortened bridging season took place, branded as the
FA WSL Spring Series, with teams playing each other once from February to May 2017.
Following the
2017–18 FA WSL
The 2017–18 FA WSL was the seventh edition of the FA WSL since it was formed in 2010. It was the first season of WSL which ran as a winter league. It started in September 2017 and ended in May 2018, with ten teams competing in both leagues.
Th ...
season, WSL 1 was renamed back to the FA Women's Super League, becoming a fully professional league for the first time, with eleven teams for the
2018–19 season.
Teams had to re-apply for their licence to earn their place in the league, requiring clubs to offer their players a minimum 16-hour a week contract and to form a youth academy as compulsory for the new licence criteria. Sunderland were moved down to tier 3 in the women's football pyramid after not receiving a licence whilst
Brighton & Hove Albion and
West Ham United were added to the league.
The league was extended to twelve teams for the
2019–20 season, with
Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to:
* Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset
* Yeovil Town L.F.C., an English women's football team affiliated with Yeovil Town F.C.
* Yeovil Town railway station
Yeovil Town railway station w ...
relegated after going into administration and being replaced by
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
and
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
, who gained promotion from the
Championship.
In May 2020 the league was curtailed by the
covid-19 pandemic. Chelsea were declared champions of the season based on a points-per-game average.
At the conclusion of 2020–21 campaign, four first-team managers resigned from their positions at WSL clubs Birmingham, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Aston Villa. Birmingham's outgoing manager Carla Ward questioned the commitment of some of the clubs involved in WSL, whilst Manchester United's outgoing manager
Casey Stoney allegedly quit because of unresolved issues surrounding lack of training facilities and other infrastructure.
In July 2022, it was announced that the Women's Super League will feature in the
FIFA 23
''FIFA 23'' is a football video game published by Electronic Arts. It is the 30th installment in the ''FIFA'' series that is developed by EA Sports, and the final installment under the ''FIFA'' banner, and released worldwide on 30 September 2022 ...
video game, with all twelve of its clubs fully licensed.
Competition structure
The FA Women's Super League currently consists of twelve clubs. Initially the league was described as professional, with the top four players on each team being paid an annual salary in excess of £20,000. However, in November 2010 it was confirmed that the WSL would be
semi-professional
Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...
, with only a "handful" of top players full-time.
Clubs' annual wage bills were expected to be approximately one-tenth of those in the now-defunct American
Women's Professional Soccer.
The 2011 season included a mid-season break from 12 May 2011, to allow for the
2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the even ...
. The season then resumed in early July, finishing in August 2011.
After the league fixtures, the teams compete for a knock-out cup competition, the
FA WSL Continental Cup. For the
2014 season, the teams were placed into three regional groups of six. The group winners and best-performing runners-up all advanced to a knockout semi-finals. Since the
2015 season, the WSL Continental Cup have been played simultaneously with the league season.
Following a review, the FA announced in September 2017 that a restructuring of the league and its licensing criteria would follow from the 2017–18 season with a goal of a fully professional top division of between 8 and 14 teams, and a second division of up to 12 semi-professional teams.
For the 2018–19 season, the league became fully professional.
Clubs
The following twelve clubs compete in the 2022–23 season, with foundation clubs displayed in bold text.
Players
![Ellen White and Steph Houghton (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Ellen_White_and_Steph_Houghton_%28cropped%29.JPG)
In the first season of the WSL clubs were subject to a squad cap of 20 players. This proved unpopular with both managers and players. Ahead of the 2012 season, the rule was reviewed and the cap increased to 23 players. Players from outside the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, like their male counterparts, are subject to
Home Office work permit regulations.
The FA said in April 2012 that the salary rule of allowing only four players per team to earn over £20,000 and the fact that all clubs are paid £70,000 per season from a Club Development Fund should limit any financial "imbalance" between clubs.
However, the introduction of a genuine
salary cap remained under consideration for 2013 and beyond.
Doncaster manager
John Buckley revealed that his club lost
Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams (born April 29, 1967) is an American model, TV presenter, and landscape designer.
Early life
Williams is the daughter of architect Tod Williams and Patricia Agnes Jones, a dancer. Her parents divorced when she was five years ...
and other players to Birmingham City because he was working to a budget eight times smaller than that enjoyed by Birmingham.
When the 2012 WPS season was cancelled in the United States, Lincoln Ladies manager Glen Harris said that the next destination of that league's British players would be decided by "pounds, shillings and pence." Ultimately
Kelly Smith,
Alex Scott and
Gemma Davison all joined Arsenal, while
Ifeoma Dieke and
Anita Asante
Anita Amma Ankyewah Asante (born 27 April 1985) is an English Association football, football Coach (sports), coach and former Defender (association football), defender or midfielder who is the first-team coach at Bristol City W.F.C., Bristol Cit ...
joined the Swedish
Damallsvenskan
The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...
in preference to the WSL.
Champions
By season
Teams in just bold indicate
double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* Th ...
s with the
Women's FA Cup
The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...
. Teams in bold and in ''italics'' indicate
trebles with the Women's FA Cup and
FA Women's League Cup
The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pri ...
.
By team
Records
. All current WSL players are in bold.
Most appearances
Top scorers
Most clean sheets
Hall of Fame
In September 2021, the Women's Super League announced the first inductees into the Barclays FA WSL Hall of Fame, recognising significant individuals who have contributed to the growth of the women's game in England and the WSL.
Sponsorship
In March 2019, the Women's Super League agreed a multi-million sponsorship deal with British bank
Barclays
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
from the start of the 2019–20 season. The three-year sponsorship deal is reported to be in excess of £10 million with a prize money pot of £500,000 for the league champions for the first time. The FA described the deal as "the biggest ever investment in UK women's sport by a brand".
The league's lead sponsor from 2012 to 2019 was Continental Tyres. Continental sponsored the FA's new commercial programme from 2014 to 2018 including the
England women's national football team,
FA Women's Cup and the
FA WSL Continental Cup in addition to the WSL. During the 2011 season,
Yorkshire Building Society
Yorkshire Building Society is the third largest building society in the UK, with its headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the Building Societies Association.
The society also owns the Chelsea Building Society a ...
was also a sponsorship partner along with Continental.
Broadcasting
, matches are broadcast and streamed in the United Kingdom and Ireland via the FA Player, BT Sport, and the
BBC (UK only). Internationally, select matches are broadcast in at least 12 countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden, and the United States.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland
Since 2017–18, many FA WSL games have been broadcast on television by
BT Sport, online and red-button by the BBC (UK only), and via the league's Facebook page.
BBC Sport has continued to air one game a weekend digitally via their iPlayer service and website, while subscription channel
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
also holds the rights to televise a selection of matches.
Since the 2019–20 season, league matches have been streamed via the FA Player, as well as some
FA Women's Championship
The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2).
WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...
games, highlights from the
Women's FA Cup
The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...
,
FA Women's League Cup
The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pri ...
and international
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
games. Some games in the FA Player are excluded, such as those broadcast on BT Sport in the UK and Ireland due to licensing rights.
In March 2021, the FA WSL announced a new record-breaking three-year domestic television rights deal with Sky Sports and BBC, beginning with the 2021–22 season. Sky would broadcast 44 matches per season with a further 22 matches shown on BBC platforms including a minimum of 18 on BBC One or Two. All other fixtures would remain available to stream for free on the FA Player, the governing body's own over
OTT
Ott, OTT or O.T.T. may refer to:
Entertainment
* OTT (group), a pop band from the late 1990s
* Ott (record producer), British record producer and musician
* "O.T.T" (song), a song by Fugative
* ''O.T.T.'' (television series), a UK TV programme f ...
service. Believed to be worth around £8 million a season, it is the biggest broadcast deal of any professional women's football league in the world and marked the first time that the WSL's rights had been sold separately from the men's game.
Previously, FA women's competitions were broadcast on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
from 2009 to 2013 as part of a four-year broadcast rights deal. Six live matches were broadcast in 2011 in addition to weekly highlights, with ten games expected to be shown in 2012.
[ ESPN broadcast the opening game of the WSL between Chelsea and Arsenal at Imperial Fields, Morden on 13 April 2011, a game Arsenal won 1–0 with a first half goal by Gilly Flaherty. The second televised game took place on 12 May 2011 as Doncaster Belles lost 1–0 to Everton Ladies at the Keepmoat Stadium, ]Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
.
In 2013, BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
broadcast four WSL programmes during the 2013–14 season. Each programme featured goal round-ups, highlights, features and previews of England's World Cup qualifiers.
International
See also
* FA WSL Spring Series
* List of FA WSL clubs
* FA WSL records and statistics
* List of professional sports teams in the United Kingdom
This article features a listing of all professional sports teams based in the United Kingdom, in addition to teams from other countries that compete in professional leagues featuring teams from the United Kingdom.
Football Premier League
EFL ...
* List of association football competitions
This is a list of the association football competitions past and present for international teams and for club football, in individual countries and internationally. Confirmed future competitions are also included.
The competitions are grouped b ...
* Women's sports
The participation of women and girls in sports, physical Physical fitness, fitness and exercise, has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, ...
References
External links
*
WSL at WomensSoccerUnited.com
{{Authority control
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
Sports leagues established in 2011
2011 establishments in England