The FA has announced six teams to add to the previous teams already selected to take part in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 The 11 clubs which will form The FA Women’s Super League for the 2018-19 season are: • Arsenal • Birmingham City Ladies • Brighton & Hove Albion Women • Bristol City Women • Chelsea FC Women • Everton Ladies FC • Liverpool Ladies FC • Manchester City Women • Reading FC Women • Yeovil Town Ladies • West Ham United Ladies* The 12 clubs which will form The FA Women’s Championship for the 2018-2019 season are: • Aston Villa Ladies FC • Doncaster Rovers Belles • Durham Women FC • London Bees • Millwall Lionesses • Sheffield FC Ladies • Tottenham Hotspur Ladies • Charlton Athletic Women** • Leicester City Women* • Lewes FC Women* • Manchester United Women* • Sheffield United Ladies* *Approved within the open application phase **Winners of The FA Women’s Premier League Championship Play-Off West Ham promoted from the third division to the first, Sheffield United from the fourth to the second, Lewes, Leicester and Charlton from the third to the second. Manchester United start the club from scratch as they don't have a team today.
Hmm weird that they're okay with an odd number of teams... Good to see Millwall still up (for now) though. I assume they (and some others) were the ones granted conditional licenses from the applications? Do you have any thoughts for who might fall through still, or who might still be added? Or is this list final final?
It is the final lost, there is an appeal period for the clubs that did not get in but the appeal system is made so that the result cannot get reversed...
Around the grounds... (BTW, anyone with any extra info is welcome!) England: May 27 saw the decider for the level 3 leagues' champion club. In the final between the southern and northern league leaders, Charlton Athletic beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. As mentioned above, Charlton can go to the level 2 division, the newly-renamed FA Women's Championship, in 2018/19. Wales: Cardiff Met won the Welsh Premier Women's League (WPWL) 2017/18, beating their closest rivals Swansea City 2-1 in both of the clubs' meetings. Cardiff Met take their fourth title in five seasons, and a Champions League place. Full table is here. Swansea took the FAW Women's Cup honours, at Cardiff City Stadium on April 15: - FAW Women's Cup Final 2018: Cardiff City v Swansea City (YouTube) In Scotland, Ireland and NI, the football season (2018) is running through the summer: Ireland: Women's National League: The 2017 champions Wexford Youths currently have a slight lead in the table. Second-placed Peamount United drew 2-2 at Wexford on April 14. There's a list of the eight clubs and locations on Wikipedia, and match videos on the FAI Youtube. Galway's 2-0 win over UCD Waves was marred by a ref calling manager Billy Clery "a ****ing idiot", which the club say they'll complain about to the FAI. Northern Ireland: Women's Premiership: Linfield Ladies are going for their third successive title in 2018, and Linfield have recorded a 4-3 win v Glentoran and a 6-3 at Cliftonville to lead the league, which has seven teams. But Crusaders Strikers' 2-1 win at Linfield has put Crusaders in second place. Scotland: The SWPL 1 title race is even tighter than last season's – top clubs Glasgow City and Hibernian have drawn in their two meetings so far, 2-2 at Hibs and 1-1 at Petershill. and they've won every other match so far. They'll play each other once more in October. In the SWPL's league cup, Hibs beat Glasgow City in a semi-final. In the SWPL Cup final on May 20, Hibernian faced the SWPL's third-placed club Celtic, and took them apart 9-0. That might be Celtic's worst ever defeat – Soccerway only lists an 8-0 loss in 2011 in its records.
Previous WSL threads: 2011 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-year-1.1642203/ 2012 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-year-2.1881186/ 2013 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-season-3-the-elliptic-year.1979175/ 2014 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-season-4-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly.1998704/ 2015 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-2015-season-5.2014002/ 2016 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-season-6-money-money-money-££££.2027171/ 2017 Spring Series - https://bit.ly/2Lr5wrp 2017/18 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-wsl-season-7-1-the-first-winter-league.2058656/ 2011 Arsenal teammates Ellen White and Steph Houghton with the WSL trophy (pic: Candlemasbear, cc-by-sa)
some nice pick ups for the WSL: Belgium star, Tessa Wuellert, moves to Man City(previously at Wolfsburg) New Zealander, Ali Riley, moves to Chelsea(previously at Rosengard) Germany's Tabbi Kemme & the Swiss, Lisa Wailti, over to Arsenal from Turbine Potsdam newcomers West Ham have all ready signed Rafferty, Flaherty & Spence from Chelsea. Their also trying to sign Gemma Davidson as well(she was my pick for league mvp a few years ago), and now unconfirmed reports that their trying to sign German bad girl, Julia Simic(of playboy fame). Their coached by Matt Beard. formerly of the Boston Breakers(better luck this time. Matt!) another tidbit, current Arsenal's Kim Little was spotted visiting Utah the other day. Does this mean she's thinking of moving there & play once again with her buddy, Lauren Harvey?
Sheffiled have withdrawn from the Championship, citing finances, leaving both tiers at 11 teams. https://equalizersoccer.com/2018/06...united-withdraws-from-fa-womens-championship/
How long until the WSL is re-named the Women's Premier League, and we're back to where we were from 1991-2010...
Scotland: It's the tightest title race since 2008/09, when two points separated the top 2. This season, it could take goal difference to divide Glasgow City and Hibernian, each with 100% records against the rest of the league. Hibs were given a big fright by Celtic, in a scrappy game at Ainslie Park Watch: Leading 2-1 with eight minutes to go, Celtic Women have three players sent off, and Hibernian Ladies score three times to win the game.Full report: https://t.co/vpI9FWtEu7(footage courtesy of Hibs TV) @swpl pic.twitter.com/A7rR1U7cl4— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) June 25, 2018 Glasgow City had an easier ride at Forfar, where they'd also won in the Scottish Cup the week before. With commentary, for @blissett's benefit - youtube.com/watch?v=3s-QUhDl2d4 Match reports by BBC Sport here. The SWPL now goes on a one-month break until July 29. In SWPL 2, Aberdeen are in real danger of a second relegation in two years. Northern Ireland: Cliftonville played Linfield in an entertaining Women's Premiership League Cup final, which was streamed and broadcast live in NI. (Match report here) Ireland: Wexford Youths remain top of the table, after their victories over the 2nd- and 3rd-placed teams: - http://wnl.fai.ie/news/907-report-shelbourne-ladies-1-3-wexford-youths.html (Archived) - http://www.wexfordfc.ie/match-repor...ghts-peamount-united-1-2-wexford-youths-women (Archived)
West Ham has signed Jame Ross. She used to be the former lead goal scorer for Man City https://www.whufc.com/news/articles...oss-joins-west-ham-ladies#8HvoODf7DVJ0PJX1.99 though it hasn't been made official yet ex German playboy cover girl, Julia Simic, says she's making her way also to West Ham. Along with the Claire 'hot legs' Rafferty signing, this could be the reason for all the happy faces of the WH staff!(though don't expect any smiles from head coach Matt Beard, he's still trying to get over his last place finish with the Boston Breakers)
so that's the nickname for West Ham! For a moment I though it was Julia's nickname(as my German translation isn't that good) http://www.anpfiff.info/sites/cms/artikel.aspx?SK=8&Btr=73534&Rub=276 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- in another interesting news.; Alex Greenwood,(formerly of Liverpool & either her NT's #1-2 left back) , has decided to move over to Man U, even though it's going to play in the 2nd division/ not sure if that's a great move or not, but the pay must be good!)
I still think the new Man United team might be a tax scam... It'll take a few years to forgive that club for being so anti-women's football in the past.
shagies of the 2nd division beware; Man U & it's billion bucks has just announced it's full lineup https://www.manutd.com/en/news/deta...t-of-players-in-Manchester-United-Women-squad Greenwood's been made captain, Chamberlin got WC(2015) experience, The one I'm familiar with is the speedy winger, Leah Dalton; the win less Sky Blue & Carli Lloyd could of used her(played so well for them last year) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- in the meantime, 1st division West Ham goes Dutch; Tessa Middag(formerly of Arsenal) https://www.whufc.com/news/articles...rnational-tessel-middag-joins-west-ham-ladies along with two Ere players; De Graaf & Reichardt btw.......my heart will beat a million times faster when they announce the Julia Simic signing; what the bleep is taking them so long? Germans are suppose to be more punctual!
God, this is really sad - Doncaster Belles have given up and left the Championship. A club that won the very first Premier Division title in 1991-92, and were a founding WSL member in 2011, and easily won the 2017-18 WSL 2 league. Now they'll be down in level 3 or 4. - https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.u...rawing-from-fa-women-s-championship-1-9248953 (Archived) A lot of key people had left Belles, including manager Neil Redfearn to Liverpool, but the club previously said they intended to continue at level 2: - https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.u...-compete-this-season-despite-exodus-1-9247842 (Archived) And the FA had approved Doncaster and Sheffield for level 2 (Championship) licences - but both clubs have decided they're unable to compete. Crystal Palace will join the Championship, which has 11 clubs atm. It makes it unbalanced geographically, with only one Yorkshire club in the top 2 divisions. Obviously the FA want to get money into the sport, but they've treated Doncaster badly over the years, and the league loses something by having fewer women's teams with a sense of history. (Also by making league tables seem meaningless. ) Doncaster Belles playing at Millwall in 2015 (pic: joshjdss, cc-by) There's a picture history of Doncaster Belles on their site, going back to the WFA's foundation in 1969, when women's football was still banned by the FA: - http://www.doncasterroversbelles.co.uk/clubTimeline.html (Archived)
The FA clearly wants the women top tier to mirror the men's top tier, so they are forcing teams to get bigger budgets and only teams with money from men's football can do this.
Clubs are back in pre-season training, so it's time to recap the new signings of the WSL clubs, plus one championship club as well Chelsea Beth England ( Liverpool – end of loan), Elizabeth Durack ( Everton), Sophie Ingle ( Liverpool), Jess Carter ( Birmingham), Ali Riley (FC Rosengard), Adelina Engman ( Goteborg FC) Manchester City Lauren Hemp (Bristol), Caroline Weir ( Liverpool), Gemma Bonner ( Liverpool), Tessa Wullaert ( Wolfsburg), Abbie McManus, Fran Stenson ( Birmingham City) Arsenal Viktoria Schnaderbeck ( FC Bayern), Lia Wälti ( Turbine Potsdam), Tabea Kemme ( Turbine Potsdam), Pauline Peyraud-Magnin ( Olympique Lyonnais) Reading Rachael Laws ( Sunderland), Sophie Howard ( Hoffenheim), Gemma Davison ( Chelsea) Birmingham Lucy Staniforth ( Sunderland) Liverpool Leighanne Robe ( Millwall), Jasmine Matthews ( Bristol), Yana Daniels ( Bristol), Anke Preuss ( Sunderland), Leandra Little ( Doncaster Belles), Rhiannon Roberts ( Doncaster Belles), Niamh Fahey ( FCGB), Christie Murray ( Glasgow City), Sophie Bradley-Auckland ( Doncaster Belles), Courtney Sweetman- Kirk ( Everton) Bristol City Sophie Baggaley ( Birmingham) Everton Ladies Inessa Kaagman ( Ajax Vrouwen), Dominique Bruinenberg ( Sunderland) Yeovil Town Brighton Women Kayleigh Green ( Yeovil), Ellie Brazil ( Fiorentina) West Ham Rebecca Spencer (Chelsea), Claire Rafferty ( Chelsea), Brianna Visalli ( Chicago Red Stars), Gilly Flaherty ( Chelsea ), Esmee De Graaf ( PEC Zwolle), Lucienne Reichardt ( Ajax Amsterdam), Anna Moorhouse ( Arsenal), Jane Ross ( Manchester City), Tessel Middag ( Manchester City), And one championship team with a famous name Manchester United Siobhan Chamberlain ( Liverpool), Emily Ramsey ( Liverpool), Fran Bentley ( Manchester City), Martha Harris ( Liverpool), Amy Turner ( Liverpool), Naomi Hartley ( Liverpool), Lucy Roberts ( Liverpool), Kirsty Smith (Hibernians), Aimee Palmer ( Bristol), Mollie Green ( Everton), Katie Zelem ( Juventus FC), Charlotte Devlin ( Millwall), Lauren James ( Arsenal), Lizzie Arnot ( Hibernians), Millie Turner ( Bristol), Ella Toone ( Manchester City), Jess Sigsworth ( Doncaster Belles), Leah Galton ( FC Bayern), Kirsty Hanson ( Doncaster Belles), Ebony Salmon ( Aston Villa)
YES, best signing ever? Only time will tell,,,,,,,,,,,,, https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2018/july/20-july/west-ham-sign-germany-star-julia-simic
Several teams are gearing up for the UEFA Women's Champions League 2018/19 qualifiers starting 7 Aug. Glasgow City will host a 4-team group, and so will Linfield - the Northern Irish champions meet the Republic of Ireland champions from Wexford. Wales' Cardiff Met are also in the Champions League, playing in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Northern Ireland: In the Women's Premiership, Linfield took a big lead at the top, with a comeback win over 2nd-placed Cliftonville on Wednesday: - https://www.nifootballleague.com/womens-premiership/news/item/blues-fight-back-to-go-nine-clear (Archived) Scotland: The SWPL returns today with Hamilton v Hibernian, each with 9 games to go. For Hibs to become champs, they need to win this and every game, and improve their goal difference, which trails Glasgow City's. Meanwhile Hamilton are threatened with relegation. (Match preview here.) Hibs won the home game 5-1 at Easter Road. More SWPL 1 info for each team: - https://www.womenspremierleague.co.uk/news/sbsswpl1-2018-season-far/ (Archived)
Hibernian got the job done on Sunday - a 5-0 win at Hamilton, exactly enough to erase the +5 goal lead of Glasgow City, whose 11-title winning streak is on the line. They're dead level on top of the table, with 8 matches to go in the 2018 season, but Hibs have the edge on Goals Scored: SWPL 1 1 Hibernian 13Pl 11W 2D 0L +39GD (48–9) 35pts 2 GlasgowC 13Pl 11W 2D 0L +39GD (45–6) 35pts The full SWPL program will return this Sunday, including Glasgow City hosting 3rd-placed Celtic. A summer friendly on Sun 29 July: Ireland: The FAI has set up a national Under-17 league, which kicked off in July with eleven teams. Ruth Fahy wrote about the new youth league, and the transfer of Wexford striker Clare O'Riordan to the Bundesliga's MSV Duisburg: - https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/ruth-fahy-column-new-u17-12910167 (Archived) The senior Women's National League (WNL) is looking at expanding its current 8 teams, but the plan may run into difficulties: - http://www.shannonside.ie/sport/featured-sport/quantity-effecting-quality-womens-soccer-league/ (Archived)
American, eh, my bad, despite being born & raised in the US & proud grad of the Texas Tech, CANADIAN Janine Beckie signs with Man City https://twitter.com/ManCityWomen
Glasgow City beat Celtic 2-0 (video/match report), while Hibernian won 4-1 over Stirling University (video/match report). That's given Hibs a +1 goal championship lead: SWPL 1 - seven games to go 1 Hibernian 14Pl 12W 2D 0L +42GD (52–10) 38pts 2 GlasgowC 14Pl 12W 2D 0L +41GD (47–6) 38pts They're back this Sunday with the "last vs 1st" Edinburgh derby - Spartans v Hibs, who share a ground. And Glasgow City will host Forfar Farmington - the 5th game in 2 weeks for City. They complained about the 2-day gap between their SWPL and European matches. England: Continental Cup kicks off today, so it's 2 weeks of league cup games for the FAWSL and Women's Championship clubs, before the league starts for real - https://web.archive.org/web/20180818094801/http://www.fawsl.com/matches.html And the National Leagues are starting on Sunday around the country. Championship-winning relegation sufferers Doncaster Belles will play Blackburn at Rossington Main. Sunderland, who got a rare double-relegation from the WSL for finishing 7th, were given a boost by the new club owners, prior to their opener versus Fylde: - https://shekicks.net/2018/08/17/fa-womens-national-league-bigkickoff-this-sunday/ (Archived) - https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...emy-of-light-as-home-venue-revealed-1-9288264 (Archived) 2014 champions: Sunderland won promotion to the top flight (photo: joshjdss, cc-by)