Now that you have learnt a bit more about the women’s football, this preview series will look through all tiers and how they look for the upcoming season.
First up is the Barclay’s Women’s Super League and here’s what you need to know…
History of the WSL
Firstly, let’s look back at the history of this league.
As previously mentioned, the Women’s Super League started in 2011 and ran on a summer league schedule.
It replaced the FA Women’s Premier League National League as the top league in women’s football in England.
There were eight teams that took part in the first season: Arsenal, Birmingham City, Bristol Academy, Chelsea, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Everton, Lincoln and Liverpool.
The league later changed to a winter schedule, more in line with how the seasons generally run.
They had a 2017 Spring Series mini league to bridge the gap which Chelsea won. 2017/18 was the first season in the current format.
Barclays started sponsoring the league in 2019/20 in a multi million partnership deal.
This season sees NewCo take over the running of the league from the FA but no significant changes will be made this season.
Current season
As for this season, there are 12 teams contesting the league this season.
Four of the original eight are still in this league: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Liverpool.
All teams that make up the league are also Premier League men’s teams too.
The team promoted into this league from the Championship are Crystal Palace who won the 2023/24 Championship by a single point.
Whilst not having any big changes to the league currently, the teams themselves have made plenty of them.
Most noticeably on the transfer front with big names such as Fran Kirby, Vivianne Miedema and Lucy Bronze either switching teams or making their way back to the league.
There has also been some location changes in where the teams will play this season. Arsenal will be playing around 8-11 WSL matches and Champions League matches at the Emirates with some other matches at their previous home ground Meadow Park in Borehamwood.
Aston Villa have made the switch to Villa Park after having played at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium since they were promoted to the WSL.
Finally, Liverpool have switched grounds to Totally Wicked Stadium, which is the home of St Helens RFC, after six seasons at Prenton Park.
There have been a fair few personnel changes in the managerial department in the off season.
The biggest one which was announced last season is that Chelsea have got a new manager. Emma Hayes led Chelsea to her final title last season and is the manager of the US women’s national team having coached in the US before coming to Chelsea. Sonia Bompastor has taken over at the Blues. She has quite the trophy cabinet as both a player and manager and was the first woman to win the UWCL as a player and a manager.
Carla Ward left Aston Villa and is now part of Emma Hayes’ US staff. They have brought in Robert de Pauw from Bayer Leverkusen. Mikey Harris left Brighton at the end of his interim term and has been replaced by Dario Vidosic from Melbourne City.
Finally, Leicester City went through a tumultuous time last season having sacked Willie Kirk due to breaching the code of conduct after an alleged relationship with a player.
Jennifer Foster took over as interim manager but now they have brought in Amandine Miquel from Reims to guide the Foxes this season.
It will be interesting to see how the league does this season with all this change and with last season being a close fought one, this season could be even closer with maybe a change in top four dominance.