Former England striker Toni Duggan welcomes WSL expansion to 14 teams from 2026
A proposal put forward by Nikki Doucet, chief executive of Women's Professional Leagues Limited, was voted through at Monday's WSL Football shareholders meeting.
It still requires the approval of the Football Association board but, if it gets the green light, 14 teams will compete in the women's top flight from next year and the 2025-26 WSL campaign will conclude with a relegation/promotion play-off.
An update on the structure of #BarclaysWSL and #BarclaysWSL2 for the 2025-26 season 🏆
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) June 16, 2025
Duggan told talkSPORT: 'I just love what women's football has done. I was part of it when they scraped it back to eight teams.
'Don't get me wrong, it was difficult to take because a league of eight teams, you were only playing a few games a season.
'We've had to gradually build to get to this stage and I think this is the right time for it, really.
'Over in Spain, if I'm comparing the two, I think Spanish football can learn from the WSL because if I'm being honest, there's too many teams over in Spain and they need to condense it to bring the talent together.'
Duggan, who played for Everton, Manchester City – with whom she won the WSL title – Barcelona and Atletico Madrid during a glittering career which also brought 79 senior international caps, announced her retirement at the age of 33 in September last year.
However, she admitted her excitement at a development she believes is significant for the women's game in this country.
She said: 'Obviously clubs now have to adhere to certain things. They have to have a stadium big enough, they have to be able to have television companies there, they have to have good facilities.
'I just think that's important for women's football. It's a given for the men's teams, so that's the direction the women's game has gone in and now we're in a position where we're ready to make it a 14-team league, and I think it's exciting.'
If the expansion from a 12-team WSL to 14 gets FA approval, it offers three Women's Championship clubs the chance to gain promotion during the 2025-26 campaign.
The top two in the Championship – which will be rebranded as Women's Super League 2 from next season – will go up automatically and the third-placed side will take on the team which finished bottom of the WSL in a play-off.
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