Super League chances for Newcastle United significantly improve – Women’s top tier expands | OneFootball

The Super League is expanding, great news for the Newcastle United women’s team.

Going into the 2025/26 season, there are 12 clubs in the Super League.

However, when the 2026/27 season kicks off, there will be 14 clubs in the women’s Super League.

After two promotions in a row, last season the Newcastle United women’s team had a bit of a consolidation campaign in the second tier. Only one team went up and whilst NUFC were on the fringes of the promotion race for a long time, they ended up fifth in the table, nine points behind London City who topped the table and got the one promotion place.

A lot of talk over a number of years about how to make women’s football more competitive in England, how to make it stronger overall. No surprises that during that discussion, I remember Chelsea wanting the Super League to become a closed league, with no promotion from the second tier, or relegation from the top tier.

The supposed argument that without fear of relegation, more clubs in the Super League could try and build long-term. What that would also have meant of course was no ambitious club could look to emerge from the lower leagues, get promoted and become a threat to the established elite…

Thankfully, the Chelsea point of view not backed and instead the final decision has been to expand and encourage more clubs to get promoted to the Super League and hopefully establish themselves long-term as contenders.

The 2025/26 season is a massive opportunity for the Newcastle United women’s team, as instead of just one team promoted from the second tier, there will be at least two. Whilst it could be three going up, as there will be a play-off between the team that finished bottom of the Super League and the team that finishes third in the women’s third tier, to decide which will play in the 2026/27 Super League.

After this one season of getting the Super League up to 14 clubs, there will then from the 2026/27 season have only one second tier team automatically promoted. However, a possibility of another promoted, as second bottom in the Super League will have a play-off against runners-up in the second tier.

Newcastle United official announcement – 17 June 2025:

Clubs have voted to expand the Barclays Women’s Super League (BWSL) to 14 teams from the start of the 2026/27 season.

At a WSL Football shareholders’ meeting on Monday, subject to the approval of The FA Board, clubs voted for a double round-robin format which includes automatic promotion and relegation alongside the addition of a promotion/relegation play-off to create distinction within the English women’s game.

To expand the BWSL to 14 teams for the start of the 2026/27 season, it was agreed that up to three teams would be promoted from the Barclays Women’s Super League 2 (BWSL2), where Newcastle United Women currently play.

The top two teams would be promoted automatically and there would be a play-off between the 12th placed BWSL team and the 3rd place BWSL2 team at the end of the 2025/26 season.

BWSL2 will continue as a 12-team league with additional promotion opportunities from the FA Women’s National League (WNL) Northern and Southern Premier Divisions at the end of the 2025/26 season. These promotions will fill the additional vacancies created by the expansion of the BWSL. The method for these promotions, and any impact further down the pyramid, will be confirmed by the FA in due course.

From the 2026/27 season, it was agreed that the competition format for the BWSL would remain as a double round robin with the top three teams qualifying for the UEFA Women’s Champions League. The 14th team in the BWSL would be automatically relegated and there would be an automatic promotion spot for the BWSL2 champions.

In addition, there would be the introduction of a promotion/relegation play-off between the 13th placed BWSL team and the 2nd placed BWSL2 team to determine which club would either stay or be promoted. The decision to expand the BWSL to 14 teams, the method to do it, including any promotion mechanism for the WNL, promotion/relegation between the BWSL and BWSL2 for the 2026/27 season onwards are subject to the approval of The FA Board.

Nikki Doucet, CEO, WSL Football said: “Over the past few months, WSL Football has led a thorough and robust, consultative process backed by research and analysis which explored multiple options that could drive the game forward and help it reach its potential. Our priority was to find a route that would benefit the whole women’s game pyramid, and we believe this next evolution of women’s professional football will raise minimum standards, create distinction and incentivise investment across the board.

“Subject to the approval from The FA Board, expanding the BWSL to 14 teams will stimulate movement between leagues and through the pyramid which increases opportunities. The introduction of a promotion/relegation play-off creates distinction for the women’s game and introduces a high-profile, high stakes match.”