📢 Overview: Expansion with Relegation Confirmed

From the 2026–27 season onwards, the Women's Super League will grow from 12 to 14 teams. Importantly, relegation remains intact, despite earlier proposals to pause it during expansion.

The plan was approved via a club shareholders' vote in June 2025, and it's now awaiting formal ratification by the Football Association, which is expected to be granted before the end of July.

🔄 Promotion & Relegation Structure

Transitional: 2025–26 Season

WSL2's top two teams earn automatic promotion to the WSL.

The third-placed WSL2 team will play a one-off playoff against the 12th-placed WSL team for a spot in the WSL.

From the 2026–27 Season

Bottom club (14th) in the WSL is automatically relegated.

The 13th-placed WSL team enters a playoff against WSL2's runners-up to determine their status for the next season.

🎯 Purpose Behind the Changes

WSL Football, led by CEO Nikki Doucet, highlights the main goals:

• Enhancing competitive movement and investor attraction in the women's football pyramid.
• Introducing high-stakes playoff matches to elevate fan and stakeholder engagement.
• Encouraging minimum standards across clubs—facility upgrades, professionalization, and academy development—to ensure sustainable growth.

⚠️ What Didn't Make It: Scrapping Relegation

Earlier in 2025, proposals considered temporarily suspending relegation to ease expansion—possibly for several seasons until the WSL reached 16 clubs. These ideas sparked significant backlash from fans, pundits, and regulatory sources alike.

WSL leadership confirmed that relegation may only be suspended under narrow, short‑term conditions—not permanently removed—and always within a broader structural package including investment commitments.

The FA chief executive Mark Bullingham reinforced that "[they] would 100 percent not accept a closed league," underlining the importance of sporting merit through promotion and relegation.

📌 At a Glance: Key Facts

Area	Details
When expansion	2026–27 season (requires FA approval before 31 July 2026)
Teams	WSL expands from 12 to 14 clubs
2025–26 format	WSL2 top two promoted; third-placed WSL2 plays 12th‑placed WSL club in playoff
From 2026–27	Bottom (14th) automatically relegated; 13th goes into playoff with WSL2's runner-up
Why keep relegation	Maintains competitive integrity, club accountability, and fan engagement
FA's stance	Rejects permanent suspension of relegation; will only accept short-term structural changes

✅ Bottom Line

The WSL will expand to 14 teams for the 2026–27 season, with relegation firmly retained. There will be two automatic promotion places from WSL2 and a playoff mechanism to determine the final WSL spot. Earlier discussions to indefinitely remove relegation did not materialize, largely due to fan opposition and concerns from the FA.

Key Sources

• The Guardian
• BBC Feeds
• The Standard
• Manchester City FC
• Reddit
• TalkSport
• Wikipedia
• Eurosport Espana