FA WSL AND FA WPL PROMOTIONS

WSL Have Confirmed That One WSL2 Club Will Be Promoted And An Application Process Has Been Opened And Extended.
Following Notts County's liquidation on the eve of the FA WSL 1 Spring Series, the league had announced they will continue with the Spring Series with just nine clubs. Players were allowed to find new clubs given the extenuating circumstances and with the Euros this Summer. The league later announced they will open an application process for a WSL 2 side to gain promotion for the 2017/18 WSL season. My initial reaction to this was that, despite there not being promotion or relegation in the Spring Series, the fairest way to decide on who should go up would be by simply promoting the WSL 2 Spring Series champions. The FA's plan to grow a sustainable professional women's league is, for any of its faults, a good one. It's this plan that influenced their decision to open up an application process for WSL 2 clubs to submit bids to gain that tenth place in WSL 1. As the criteria looks at things like finances, financial sustainability, marketing, stadium, etc., it also considers on the field performances. Looking at it, it makes sense to go this way. I still believe that as WSL 2 Spring Series champions Everton should gain that place. Not just because they won the competition, but also because of the criteria laid out by The FA. Everton were the first team to be relegated from WSL 1 in 2014, they clearly have met the criteria in the recent past having been in the WSL since its birth in 2011. 

The FA WSL will operate with ten teams in each division from 2017/18 with one WSL 2 side going up this summer and FA WPL champions Tottenham Hotspur winning promotion to WSL 2. I think WSL should continue to grow by at least one team each year but to relegate one team from WSL 2 to the FA WPL with a team coming in the opposite direction, this won't happen. I want to see a thirty team WSL with 16 clubs in the top flight and 14 in WSL 2. In The Women's Premier League Blackburn Rovers reached the National Championship game by winning the Northern Division in an unbeaten league season. Spurs won the Southern Division. They were unbeaten in the league at the time of clinching the title, but went on to lose two of their final three matches. Spurs won the National Championship by beating Rovers 3-0 at The Valley and are deserved National Champions however, given the outstanding season both sides have had, and the WSL currently one club short, I think they should find room to promote both Tottenham and Blackburn. Not only this, but promote both FA WPL National Championship finalists each year until WSL reaches 30 clubs. That way we visibly see the game growing year after year.