2 Mar: London City Lionesses, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 9 Mar: Blackburn Rovers, home, 12 noon. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 16 Mar: Bristol City, away, 2pm. At Ashton Gate. £12.25 adult, £10.25 over-65, £10.25 under-22, £7 under-19, £5 under-12. Tickets from here. 23 Mar: Birmingham, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 30 Mar: Sunderland away, 2pm. At Eppleton Colliery welfare ground. Not on sale yet. Tickets from here.
Huge game at the Valley on Sunday. They played us off the park in the away game so this will be a big test.
The Sunderland game at the end of the month is a 2pm kickoff, for anyone in the area who fancies going. This game's normally at noon but is different this season for some reason.
2 Mar: London City Lionesses, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 9 Mar: Blackburn Rovers, home, 12 noon. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 16 Mar: Bristol City, away, 2pm. At Ashton Gate. £12.25 adult, £10.25 over-65, £10.25 under-22, £7 under-19, £5 under-12. Tickets from here. 23 Mar: Birmingham, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 30 Mar: Sunderland away, 2pm. At Eppleton Colliery welfare ground. Not on sale yet. Tickets from here.
Huge game at the Valley on Sunday. They played us off the park in the away game so this will be a big test.
The Sunderland game at the end of the month is a 2pm kickoff, for anyone in the area who fancies going. This game's normally at noon but is different this season for some reason.
Don't forget CAST are offering cheap coach travel for the Bristol City game. Contact the ticket office to be added to the list
2 Mar: London City Lionesses, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 9 Mar: Blackburn Rovers, home, 12 noon. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 16 Mar: Bristol City, away, 2pm. At Ashton Gate. £12.25 adult, £10.25 over-65, £10.25 under-22, £7 under-19, £5 under-12. Tickets from here. 23 Mar: Birmingham, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18. 30 Mar: Sunderland away, 2pm. At Eppleton Colliery welfare ground. Not on sale yet. Tickets from here.
Huge game at the Valley on Sunday. They played us off the park in the away game so this will be a big test.
The Sunderland game at the end of the month is a 2pm kickoff, for anyone in the area who fancies going. This game's normally at noon but is different this season for some reason.
Don't forget CAST are offering cheap coach travel for the Bristol City game. Contact the ticket office to be added to the list
Looks like the woman best get promoted this season as there is a proposal from the WSL to do away with relegation from WSL prem. Eventual they propse having a WSL 1 and WSL 2. Though want the point of WSL2 is without promotion I do not understand.
The Women’s Super League is considering abolishing relegation as part of a radical proposal to grow the sport that will be discussed by the clubs at a meeting on Friday.
The Guardian has learned that the 23 WSL and Championship clubs have been called to a strategy summit by the newly formed company that runs both competitions, Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd, which will ask them to explore a range of options to increase the profile, sustainability and profitability of women’s football.
WPLL took over responsibility for running the WSL and Championship from the FA under the leadership of chief executive, Nikki Doucet, last summer and is eager to pursue an expansionist agenda. The new company has already had successes, securing a new five-year TV deal with Sky Sports and the BBC worth £65m, and a three-year title sponsorship for the WSL with Barclays worth £45m.
Buoyed up by these new deals, and Chelsea’s recent landmark signing of the first $1m women’s player, Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave, WPLL is keen to explore its options for further growth.
One of the proposals to be discussed today is understood to involve an expansion of both the WSL and Championship, with the proviso that there would be no relegation between the two divisions initially.
A source who will be involved in Friday’s talks confirmed that radical proposals will be on the agenda, and the clubs are open to any ideas that could help grow the sport.
The structural changes would not be introduced until the 2026-27 season at the earliest. It is unclear when the proposals will be put to the clubs for a formal vote, although it is unlikely to take place on Friday.
The rationale behind the proposal is that removing the threat of relegation would encourage owners to invest and help develop a more competitive league, which is currently dominated by Chelsea, who have won the past five WSL titles.
Another idea set to be discussed is maintaining promotion from the Championship without relegation from the top flight, so that the WSL would gradually expand by one club every season.
In addition to the controversial removal of relegation, the mechanism for establishing which clubs join the expanded WSL will also be contentious.
The ambitious and well-resourced Birmingham City and London City Lionesses currently fill the top two places in the Championship, but relative minnows Durham are third, while big Premier League clubs who have been late to women’s football such as Newcastle would also make a claim to be included in the top flight.
In another change, the Championship is set to be rebranded as WSL2 in a move which could take place in time for the start of next season. There are only 11 teams in the Championship this season following the late withdrawal of Reading after owner Dai Yongge cut funding for their women’s operation.
Initially created as a single-tier, eight-team breakaway league in 2011 with no relegation, the WSL expanded to include a second tier from 2014 onwards, originally named WSL 2. In the summer of 2018 there was another major expansion after a licence application process and the introduction of fully professional criteria for the top flight, so from the 2018-19 campaign onwards the top tier had 11 teams, while the semi-professional second tier – which was rebranded as the Women’s Championship – also consisted of 11 teams. The WSL grew to 12 teams a year later. The Championship remained at 11 teams for the 2019-20 campaign but only because Yeovil had been demoted from tier 1 to tier 3 because of financial problems.
The Covid-19 pandemic then further delayed the addition of a 12th team into the second tier – because the lower leagues were declared null and void in the spring of 2020 and nobody was promoted.
But since the 2021-22 campaign, the top two teams have each consisted of 12 teams, with a one up, one down promotion and relegation system. This term, only 11 teams have competed in tier two after Reading’s eleventh-hour withdrawal last June.
Honestly they should expand the whole thing to 32 teams, 2 leagues of 16 and just go from there. I don't think women's football would support more teams than that for now and it wouldn't mean we have a weird situation where there's an odd number of teams in the leagues for a few seasons.
If you took the current format and made it 32 teams, you could have 2 leagues consisting of: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Aston Villa, Birmingham, London City, Durham, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace.
Bristol City, Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Portsmouth and then a few of the teams from the National leagues that can sustain a professional team, like Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Ipswich, Stoke etc.
Honestly they should expand the whole thing to 32 teams, 2 leagues of 16 and just go from there. I don't think women's football would support more teams than that for now and it wouldn't mean we have a weird situation where there's an odd number of teams in the leagues for a few seasons.
If you took the current format and made it 32 teams, you could have 2 leagues consisting of: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Aston Villa, Birmingham, London City, Durham, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace.
Bristol City, Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Portsmouth and then a few of the teams from the National leagues that can sustain a professional team, like Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Ipswich, Stoke etc.
there should be promotion and relegation, if there is not what is the point of two leagues, The second would just become an amateur park league as why would any big inestors be interested. We do not live in 1880 when wealthy amateur teams had a reasonable chance against the professional sides.
Honestly they should expand the whole thing to 32 teams, 2 leagues of 16 and just go from there. I don't think women's football would support more teams than that for now and it wouldn't mean we have a weird situation where there's an odd number of teams in the leagues for a few seasons.
If you took the current format and made it 32 teams, you could have 2 leagues consisting of: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Aston Villa, Birmingham, London City, Durham, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace.
Bristol City, Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Portsmouth and then a few of the teams from the National leagues that can sustain a professional team, like Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Ipswich, Stoke etc.
there should be promotion and relegation, if there is not what is the point of two leagues, The second would just become an amateur park league as why would any big inestors be interested. We do not live in 1880 when wealthy amateur teams had a reasonable chance against the professional sides.
All sounds a bit american 'franchise' system to me. Relegation and Promotion are the fundamentals of our football culture.
Honestly they should expand the whole thing to 32 teams, 2 leagues of 16 and just go from there. I don't think women's football would support more teams than that for now and it wouldn't mean we have a weird situation where there's an odd number of teams in the leagues for a few seasons.
If you took the current format and made it 32 teams, you could have 2 leagues consisting of: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Aston Villa, Birmingham, London City, Durham, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace.
Bristol City, Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Portsmouth and then a few of the teams from the National leagues that can sustain a professional team, like Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Ipswich, Stoke etc.
there should be promotion and relegation, if there is not what is the point of two leagues, The second would just become an amateur park league as why would any big inestors be interested. We do not live in 1880 when wealthy amateur teams had a reasonable chance against the professional sides.
All sounds a bit american 'franchise' system to me. Relegation and Promotion are the fundamentals of our football culture.*
From my understanding of the situation. The WSL would it is suspend relegation not promotion. With this being the case (since I expect our women's team will get promoted within 5 years) our Women team would benefit from this.
This would be beneficial for us (Charlton Women) since it allows us to get promoted and compete against the likes of Arsenal,Man City and Man United, and bring in revenue. This allows our Women team to become more financially independent from the men's team without the financial costs of relegation.
Charlie Methven has talked about this before (time code 41:18) and did mention and suggested it should be a closed league.
Calling the Championship SL.2 is a bit like the old First Division/Second Division.
*- on the point about footballing culture- that is why I suggested a play off system (between the two leagues), but maybe that is an idea for the future.
*- on the point about footballing culture- that is why I suggested a play off system (between the two leagues), but maybe that is an idea for the future.
Play off between top 3 champ, bottom 1 WSL would be fine. Still potential jeopardy and not americanising football in the UK.
*- on the point about footballing culture- that is why I suggested a play off system (between the two leagues), but maybe that is an idea for the future.
Play off between top 3 champ, bottom 1 WSL would be fine. Still potential jeopardy and not americanising football in the UK.
Still think the no relegation, to expand the WSL, is a good idea for clubs like ours. Don't understand where this americanising football rational comes from. Surely no relegation with promotion benefits the small clubs instead of the big clubs (which is usually where the term americanising football comes from lets be honest) and not the other way round.
*correct up to 28/2/25 Newcastle have only played 12/14 games.
Without relegation, the big clubs just keep getting bigger. I am not arguing if it would be better for the womens game (I don't have enough data to make that judgement) but I believe our whole football pyramid in the UK is envy of the world because teams can rise from nowhere (or back from nowhere) and climb 'the ladder'. The opposite is also true.
Its one of the reasons that the Wrexham owners bought a club in the 5th tier as they saw the potential to rise up through the leagues and tell a story.
I fully appreicate the womens league will be 2 leagues at best, so the analogy falls down somewhat, but I could never support a league with no relegation.
I am also not convinced it would mean Charlton would get up the WSL. They could retain 1 up and no down for a number of years and, as proven last year and somewhat this (and as seen in the National league) getting out of a 1 promotion league is bloody hard.
Two things. I wish I was able to come over & support the girls in the run in. And I wish people wouldn’t come on this thread just to run the women’s team down. If it ain’t your boat, move along & ignore. I do that with plenty of nonsense on this forum I’m not interested in.
Without relegation, the big clubs just keep getting bigger. I am not arguing if it would be better for the womens game (I don't have enough data to make that judgement) but I believe our whole football pyramid in the UK is envy of the world because teams can rise from nowhere (or back from nowhere) and climb 'the ladder'. The opposite is also true.
Its one of the reasons that the Wrexham owners bought a club in the 5th tier as they saw the potential to rise up through the leagues and tell a story.*
I fully appreicate the womens league will be 2 leagues at best, so the analogy falls down somewhat, but I could never support a league with no relegation.***
I am also not convinced it would mean Charlton would get up the WSL.** They could retain 1 up and no down for a number of years and, as proven last year and somewhat this (and as seen in the National league) getting out of a 1 promotion league is bloody hard.
* I understand what you mean, but think you are mixing up the male's game with the female's game. If you look at the points Charlie Methvenmakes then you'd understand it a bit more.
Wrexham Women play in the Welsh pyramid anyway, so they don't concern us (Charlton Women). Any finances their (Wrexham owners) put towards their Women's team will be towards them competing in that pyramid.
**- Think we have the squad and the reputation to be in the promotion mix at least.
***- I would support it being a temporary fix. If it allows our Women team to grow then I do not see a problem.
I don't like the idea that our Women's team relies on the Men's progress. Not for the reason it takes money away from our Men's team, but when they (the Men's team) do badly- it has a terrible effect on the funding for our Women's squad.
Honestly they should expand the whole thing to 32 teams, 2 leagues of 16 and just go from there. I don't think women's football would support more teams than that for now and it wouldn't mean we have a weird situation where there's an odd number of teams in the leagues for a few seasons.
If you took the current format and made it 32 teams, you could have 2 leagues consisting of: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Aston Villa, Birmingham, London City, Durham, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace.
Bristol City, Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Portsmouth and then a few of the teams from the National leagues that can sustain a professional team, like Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Ipswich, Stoke etc.
there should be promotion and relegation, if there is not what is the point of two leagues, The second would just become an amateur park league as why would any big inestors be interested. We do not live in 1880 when wealthy amateur teams had a reasonable chance against the professional sides.
I'd still have promotion and relegation between the 2 leagues obviously
I quite like the idea of increasing the division sizes. The standard size of 12 in the women's game is aimed at amateur clubs where it's not really fair to ask players to travel long distances on weekdays on a regular basis. In the top two divisions everyone's getting paid at least 18 hours a week and most clubs are full time so an increase to 14 or 16 ought to be possible.
Personally I'd prefer to expand the divisions by having extra promotion places rather than less relegation, but it's probably not realistic to get the WSL clubs to agree to that. So 2 to 4 years of no-one coming down from WSL and the top few Championship clubs going up would work OK. Keep the 2 promotions from tier 3 and have either 1 or 0 going down and over time it would reach whatever size is specified.
Like most people I'm completely opposed to the suggestion of abandoning automatic promotion and relegation altogether. Without the possibility of getting into WSL and the risk of going down to tier 3 and having to fight to get back in, the Championship would be boring.
Comments
9 Mar: Blackburn Rovers, home, 12 noon. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18.
16 Mar: Bristol City, away, 2pm. At Ashton Gate. £12.25 adult, £10.25 over-65, £10.25 under-22, £7 under-19, £5 under-12. Tickets from here.
23 Mar: Birmingham, home, 2pm. At the Valley. £10 adult, £7 over-65, £6 under-25, £5 under-18.
30 Mar: Sunderland away, 2pm. At Eppleton Colliery welfare ground. Not on sale yet. Tickets from here.
Huge game at the Valley on Sunday. They played us off the park in the away game so this will be a big test.
The Sunderland game at the end of the month is a 2pm kickoff, for anyone in the area who fancies going. This game's normally at noon but is different this season for some reason.
Eventual they propse having a WSL 1 and WSL 2.
Though want the point of WSL2 is without promotion I do not understand.
The Women’s Super League is considering abolishing relegation as part of a radical proposal to grow the sport that will be discussed by the clubs at a meeting on Friday.
The Guardian has learned that the 23 WSL and Championship clubs have been called to a strategy summit by the newly formed company that runs both competitions, Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd, which will ask them to explore a range of options to increase the profile, sustainability and profitability of women’s football.
WPLL took over responsibility for running the WSL and Championship from the FA under the leadership of chief executive, Nikki Doucet, last summer and is eager to pursue an expansionist agenda. The new company has already had successes, securing a new five-year TV deal with Sky Sports and the BBC worth £65m, and a three-year title sponsorship for the WSL with Barclays worth £45m.
Buoyed up by these new deals, and Chelsea’s recent landmark signing of the first $1m women’s player, Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave, WPLL is keen to explore its options for further growth.
One of the proposals to be discussed today is understood to involve an expansion of both the WSL and Championship, with the proviso that there would be no relegation between the two divisions initially.
A source who will be involved in Friday’s talks confirmed that radical proposals will be on the agenda, and the clubs are open to any ideas that could help grow the sport.
The structural changes would not be introduced until the 2026-27 season at the earliest. It is unclear when the proposals will be put to the clubs for a formal vote, although it is unlikely to take place on Friday.
The rationale behind the proposal is that removing the threat of relegation would encourage owners to invest and help develop a more competitive league, which is currently dominated by Chelsea, who have won the past five WSL titles.
Another idea set to be discussed is maintaining promotion from the Championship without relegation from the top flight, so that the WSL would gradually expand by one club every season.
In addition to the controversial removal of relegation, the mechanism for establishing which clubs join the expanded WSL will also be contentious.
The ambitious and well-resourced Birmingham City and London City Lionesses currently fill the top two places in the Championship, but relative minnows Durham are third, while big Premier League clubs who have been late to women’s football such as Newcastle would also make a claim to be included in the top flight.
In another change, the Championship is set to be rebranded as WSL2 in a move which could take place in time for the start of next season. There are only 11 teams in the Championship this season following the late withdrawal of Reading after owner Dai Yongge cut funding for their women’s operation.
Initially created as a single-tier, eight-team breakaway league in 2011 with no relegation, the WSL expanded to include a second tier from 2014 onwards, originally named WSL 2. In the summer of 2018 there was another major expansion after a licence application process and the introduction of fully professional criteria for the top flight, so from the 2018-19 campaign onwards the top tier had 11 teams, while the semi-professional second tier – which was rebranded as the Women’s Championship – also consisted of 11 teams. The WSL grew to 12 teams a year later. The Championship remained at 11 teams for the 2019-20 campaign but only because Yeovil had been demoted from tier 1 to tier 3 because of financial problems.
The Covid-19 pandemic then further delayed the addition of a 12th team into the second tier – because the lower leagues were declared null and void in the spring of 2020 and nobody was promoted.
But since the 2021-22 campaign, the top two teams have each consisted of 12 teams, with a one up, one down promotion and relegation system. This term, only 11 teams have competed in tier two after Reading’s eleventh-hour withdrawal last June.
WPLL declined to comment.
If you took the current format and made it 32 teams, you could have 2 leagues consisting of:
Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Man City, Brighton, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham, Everton, Leicester, Aston Villa, Birmingham, London City, Durham, Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace.
Bristol City, Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Portsmouth and then a few of the teams from the National leagues that can sustain a professional team, like Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Ipswich, Stoke etc.
The second would just become an amateur park league as why would any big inestors be interested.
We do not live in 1880 when wealthy amateur teams had a reasonable chance against the professional sides.
would be good to support the girls a bit more, considering the news above
https://x.com/castrust/status/1895428718786695177?s=46
This would be beneficial for us (Charlton Women) since it allows us to get promoted and compete against the likes of Arsenal,Man City and Man United, and bring in revenue. This allows our Women team to become more financially independent from the men's team without the financial costs of relegation.
Charlie Methven has talked about this before (time code 41:18) and did mention and suggested it should be a closed league.
I prefer this to Celtic and Rangers skipping the Women's Championship to join the WSL.
Calling the Championship SL.2 is a bit like the old First Division/Second Division.
*- on the point about footballing culture- that is why I suggested a play off system (between the two leagues), but maybe that is an idea for the future.
Play off between top 3 champ, bottom 1 WSL would be fine. Still potential jeopardy and not americanising football in the UK.
Go for it mate, each to their own.
Still think the no relegation, to expand the WSL, is a good idea for clubs like ours. Don't understand where this americanising football rational comes from. Surely no relegation with promotion benefits the small clubs instead of the big clubs (which is usually where the term americanising football comes from lets be honest) and not the other way round.
*correct up to 28/2/25
Newcastle have only played 12/14 games.
Its one of the reasons that the Wrexham owners bought a club in the 5th tier as they saw the potential to rise up through the leagues and tell a story.
I fully appreicate the womens league will be 2 leagues at best, so the analogy falls down somewhat, but I could never support a league with no relegation.
I am also not convinced it would mean Charlton would get up the WSL. They could retain 1 up and no down for a number of years and, as proven last year and somewhat this (and as seen in the National league) getting out of a 1 promotion league is bloody hard.
I wish I was able to come over & support the girls in the run in.
And I wish people wouldn’t come on this thread just to run the women’s team down. If it ain’t your boat, move along & ignore. I do that with plenty of nonsense on this forum I’m not interested in.
Wrexham Women play in the Welsh pyramid anyway, so they don't concern us (Charlton Women). Any finances their (Wrexham owners) put towards their Women's team will be towards them competing in that pyramid.
**- Think we have the squad and the reputation to be in the promotion mix at least.
***- I would support it being a temporary fix. If it allows our Women team to grow then I do not see a problem.
I don't like the idea that our Women's team relies on the Men's progress. Not for the reason it takes money away from our Men's team, but when they (the Men's team) do badly- it has a terrible effect on the funding for our Women's squad.
Personally I'd prefer to expand the divisions by having extra promotion places rather than less relegation, but it's probably not realistic to get the WSL clubs to agree to that. So 2 to 4 years of no-one coming down from WSL and the top few Championship clubs going up would work OK. Keep the 2 promotions from tier 3 and have either 1 or 0 going down and over time it would reach whatever size is specified.
Like most people I'm completely opposed to the suggestion of abandoning automatic promotion and relegation altogether. Without the possibility of getting into WSL and the risk of going down to tier 3 and having to fight to get back in, the Championship would be boring.