WSL 2 · History

The FA Women's Super League 2, known as WSL 2, was the second tier of women's football in England from 2014 to 2018. It began in 2014 as a ten-team division played on a summer calendar, alongside a top flight that from then on was called WSL 1. The league replaced the FA Women's Premier League National Division as the step below the elite, and places in it were granted by the Football Association through club applications rather than on sporting merit. It ran for four full seasons and a shortened Spring Series in 2017, and before the 2018–19 season it was renamed the FA Women's Championship.

Creation and the Doncaster case

The FA announced the two-tier structure in 2013. On 26 April that year it confirmed that Doncaster Rovers Belles, a founding member of the Women's Super League, would drop into the new second division for 2014, with their top-flight place going to Manchester City, a club that had never played in the WSL. The decision came after Doncaster had played only one match of the 2013 season. The club took the case to an independent appeals panel, which rejected it in June 2013. Doncaster therefore lined up in the first WSL 2 season alongside Aston Villa, Durham, London Bees, Millwall Lionesses, Oxford United, Reading, Sunderland, Watford and Yeovil Town.

The summer seasons, 2014 to 2016

Sunderland won the inaugural title in 2014 with 47 points from 18 matches (15 wins, two draws, one defeat), sealing it with a 4–0 win over Millwall Lionesses on the final day; Doncaster finished two points behind. The division's top scorer that year was Fran Kirby of Reading, with 24 goals. Only Sunderland went up, and Everton came down from WSL 1 for 2015. That season produced the tightest finish of the period: Reading and Doncaster both ended on 45 points, Reading taking the title on goal difference (+46 to +42) after a 3–2 win at Aston Villa in the last round. Both clubs were promoted, and Doncaster's Courtney Sweetman-Kirk led the scoring charts with 20 goals.

In 2016 the league welcomed its first club promoted from the Women's Premier League, Sheffield FC, as well as Bristol City, the former Bristol Academy, relegated from the top tier. Yeovil Town and Bristol City finished level on 39 points, and Yeovil were crowned champions on goal difference after beating Sheffield 3–0 on the final day. Both went up to WSL 1. Iniabasi Umotong of Oxford United and Jo Wilson of London Bees were joint top scorers with 13 goals each.

The 2017 Spring Series

To move English women's football from a summer to a winter calendar, the FA staged a shortened competition between February and May 2017. Ten teams, Brighton & Hove Albion among them, played each other once, for a total of 45 matches, with no promotion or relegation at stake. Everton won it with 22 points from nine games (seven wins, one draw, one defeat) and Doncaster were second on 18. Sweetman-Kirk again finished as leading scorer, this time with nine goals. On 9 June 2017 the FA awarded Everton the vacant WSL 1 place for 2017–18 through its application process; Doncaster had also applied.

The final season, 2017–18

The fifth and last edition was the first played over the winter, from September 2017 to May 2018, with ten teams, 90 matches and 325 goals. Tottenham Hotspur were among the participants. Doncaster Rovers Belles won the title with 47 points (15 wins, two draws, one defeat), and their forward Jessica Sigsworth was top scorer with 15 goals. Results did not decide promotion or relegation, because the FA was rebuilding the pyramid around a new licensing system. Brighton, second, received a top-tier licence for 2018–19. Doncaster gave up their second-tier licence and dropped to the Northern Premier Division; Sheffield FC also relinquished theirs, while Oxford United and Watford failed to obtain one and went down to the Southern Premier Division. Millwall Lionesses finished third despite a three-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player.

From WSL 2 to the Women's Championship

Under the 2018 restructure the second tier was renamed the FA Women's Championship from the 2018–19 season, which Manchester United won ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. The competition dropped the “FA” prefix before the 2022–23 campaign, when Barclays became title partner, and before the 2025–26 season it was rebranded as the Women's Super League 2, the full name of the league created in 2014. Birmingham City won the 2025–26 title.