EDITORIAL
Expansive taste Proposals to scrap relegation f rom the Women’s Super League would lead to a stagnant division and a weakened pyramid
Once again, the three teams promoted to the Premier League (PL) may be getting relegated. Meanwhile, two of the previous year’s trio, Sheffield United and Burnley, who finished on 16 and 24 points respectively in 2023-24, could come straight back.
The widening gulf between the divisions has led to a cycle with promoted clubs being routinely thrashed one year then dominating their Football League opponents in the next. Certain conclusions are being drawn from it that should be a cause for alarm. Some owners of the clubs who play in Europe every season are known to want a domestic league reduced to 18 or even 16 clubs. Half the PL clubs have American owners, a number that may soon increase, who are used to team sports run in a way that is quite different to most of the world. If the size of the PL is due for serious consideration, the next step would be to push for a sealed league with no relegation, as exists in the US.
As any such plans would be fiercely resisted by supporters, including at the clubs that would supposedly benefit, they might not come to pass. At least not in men’s football where the league system has existed for close to 140 years. But the women’s game, which only went fully professional at the top level in 2018, is now suddenly facing a similar threat, provided by its ruling body.
Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd (WPLL) took over the Women’s Super League (WSL) and the Women’s Championship before the start of this season. At the end of February they met with clubs to discuss plans for expansion. Women’s football in England is flourishing, with the national side having reached two major tournament finals in succession and attendance records being set every year. The boom is reflected in the commercial contracts set up by the new ruling body which include a £65 million five-year broadcasting deal with Sky Sports and the BBC, and a £45m three-year sponsorship of the WSL by Barclays.
WPLL are now aiming to expand their divisions – currently standing at 12 and
I M A G E S
G E T T Y
Above Doncaster Rovers Belles celebrate their brief return to the top division of the Women’s Super League in 2015
11 teams – beginning in 2026-27. But the preferred way for this be done, which will be subject to a vote by the clubs at the end of this season, is to promote one team per year with none being relegated.
This arrangement will stay in place for at least a few seasons, with the aim being for both the WSL and Championship to
In the days before professional League clubs invested in teams, women’s football was dominated by the oldest extant team, Doncaster Belles gradually expand to 16 teams. It is not yet clear whether the finishing position in the Championship would determine who gets to go up. Critics of the plan, however, see it as a way to accelerate promotion for clubs with wealthy owners, such as Newcastle, who are currently seventh in the Championship.
Another team in the north-east, Durham, are third in the table with a chance of getting the one automatic promotion place. Members of the Championship since 2014, they play at the Durham University sports ground having been formed as a merger between the university team and one with a background in youth football. But a club with no tie-in to a major men’s team may not be the sort that the reforms are supposed to help.
In the days before professional League clubs invested in teams, women’s football was dominated by the oldest extant team, Doncaster Belles. They did a league and cup double in the inaugural year of the Women’s Premier Division, created in 1991-92, a year before the FA took charge of the women’s game. The Belles, who were briefly linked up to Doncaster Rovers, were members of the WSL on its creation in 2011 but were demoted three years later to be replaced by Manchester City and are now in the fourth division.
The removal of the risk of relegation from the WSL would supposedly encourage club owners to invest. Even as a temporary measure, though, it would just as likely lead to stagnation with far more meaningless fixtures and no sense of jeopardy. The teams at the bottom of the league, however badly run, would have more income than those locked out in the lower division. And the excluded clubs would find it much harder to attract any sort of meaningful investment as well as interest from broadcasters.
As is the case in the men’s game, lower level women’s teams have a vital role as a source of playing talent. The priority should be to encourage more independent clubs and give them the opportunity to progress through a strengthened pyramid for women’s football.
WSC 5
