WSL shareholders vote to expand league to 14 teams from 2026-27 season | OneFootball

The league will also keep relegation in place

The Women’s Super League will grow from 12 teams to 14 from the 2026-27 season after member clubs unanimously voted to expand the division today.

The vote was passed at a shareholders’ meeting on Monday, and the FA are now set to meet to ratify the accepted updates, though that step is merely a formality.

The clubs also voted to keep relegation in place after it had been proposed that the system could be temporarily scrapped to help bridge the gap between the league’s leading clubs and its stragglers.

The WSL 2, recently rebranded from the Championship, will continue with 12 teams, but has been made fully professional.

This comes mere weeks after Blackburn Rovers pulled the plug on their women’s outfit, having deemed it financially unviable.

The relegation format will be temporarily adjusted, though, with an eye to expanding the top flight. Next season, the WSL 2 champion and runner-up will both be automatically promoted and a promotion play-off will be implemented, pitting the third-placed WSL 2 team against the lowest-ranked WSL side for a place in the top flight.

That system will only serve to expand the league following the 2025-26 season, though, with the ‘one up, one down’ system returning for subsequent campaigns.

Clubs promoted from the Women’s National League to the WSL 2 must now meet the minimum criteria to gain entry.

Of the changes, Nikki Doucet, the CEO of WSL Football said: “We believe this next evolution of women’s professional football will raise minimum standards, create distinction and incentivise investment across the board … The introduction of a promotion/relegation playoff creates distinction for the women’s game and introduces a high-profile, high-stakes match.”

Expansion is a key element in the WSL’s 10-year plan, which aims to make the nation’s top two women’s leagues fully professional.

It also calls for improved facilities, more contact hours for players, larger coaching and support staff, and reinforced academies.

To expand the league will, of course, mean more matches will be played, adding fervour to the debate surrounding player fatigue, conversations which will only grow in volume following the introduction of the Women’s Club World Cup in 2028.