FA reveals stance as Women’s Super League clubs consider scrapping relegation

The Football Association would not support a “closed” Women’s Super League, but chief executive Mark Bullingham has not ruled out backing some proposals that would see relegation scrapped from the women’s top-flight if they benefited the wider growth of the game.

While the running of the WSL is now in the hands of the newly formed Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL), the FA still retains a “golden share” and possesses “a lot of power” to vote against any proposals that would make the WSL a “closed shop”.

The head of the WPLL, Nikki Doucet, has confirmed that “all possibilities” are being considered, including a plan to pause relegation from the WSL but continuing promotion from the Women’s Championship in order to expand the top-flight, which is currently a 12-team league.

But another plan to scrap promotion and relegation completely is also on the table, with supporters of a “closed” top-flight believing that it could incentivise clubs to invest without the financial risk of then dropping into the Championship.

“I think that over the last few years we've been asked a few times about whether we would accept a closed league and our response has always been no,” Bullingham said. “The reason for that is not just a moral one, from a sporting point of view, but we actually don't think in the long-term it's smart commercially because you end up with a lot of dead rubbers.

“However, we think that some of the ideas that have been put forward are worth considering, on the proviso that there's still promotion into the league. I think there's a difference between not having relegation and allowing the league to grow through promotion with no relegation versus having a closed league.

“If we get presented with a package of changes that’s good for the women's game overall – and I'm talking about academies, minimum standards, player pathways – and within the context of that there's a change to the number of clubs in the league brought about through having promotion and no relegation, then we could potentially be supportive. But we need to look at that overall package.”

Bullingham made clear that the FA would “100 per cent not accept a closed league” and said that they retain certain powers to stop such a change, despite handing over power to the WPLL last summer.

“We've got certain levers that we can use, over the size of the league, promotion, relegation, that sort of thing,” Bullingham said. “But we're confident they'll put forward a package that could be good for the overall women's game and we'll analyse it in that way.”

WPLL member clubs are set to hold a vote on scrapping relegation later this season, with a two-thirds majority needed, but any proposed changes would need to be ratified by the FA board. The chief executive of the WSL, Doucet, spoke about the proposals separately Thursday.

She told Sky Sports: “We fundamentally believe promotion and relegation is an important differentiator and also a really important competitive advantage for us relative to other women's sports leagues globally.

“We also want to make sure that our league works for club investors to allow more investment to come into the game, but one that doesn't change our core principles.

“It's really important for us to make sure that we're considering all of the possibilities to accelerate growth and growing in the right way. We are considering numerous options, including expansion if that is a possibility for us.

“There are no decisions, there are no approvals that have been made at this stage that would be different or changes to the future competition structure or format.”