WOMEN NEWS: FA WNL Confirm Key Dates Ahead of 2025/26 Season

The Football Association (FA) has confirmed key dates ahead of the new FA Women’s National League (WNL) season.

Derby County Women will once again be competing in the FA WNL Northern Premier Division (Tier 3) for the 2025/26 season and will continue to play their home games at the Don Amott Arena in Mickleover.

Key Dates

Teams will find out their full fixture list for the upcoming league season on Tuesday 15th July 2025.

The 2025/26 league season will begin on Sunday 17th August 2025 and conclude on Sunday 26th April 2026.

One-off Promotion Restructure

Following the approved expansion of the Barclays Women’s Super League, next season will also see a one-off change to the promotion system in the FA WNL, which covers Tiers 3 and 4 of the pyramid.

In order to retain divisions of 12 teams across Tiers 2, 3 and 4 for the 2026/27 season, an extra team will be promoted from Tier 3 to the Barclays WSL2 alongside the winners of the Southern Premier Division and Northern Premier Division. This place will be decided by a play-off match between the two teams that finish second in the two divisions at the end of next season.

Two additional teams will also be promoted from Tier 4 to Tier 3, alongside the four division winners.

These will also be determined by play-offs, with the second-placed sides in Division One North and Division One Midlands facing each other for one place, and the two second-placed sides in Division One South West and Division One South East competing for the other spot.

All three play-off finals will take place in May, while relegation remains unaffected, with the two bottom-placed sides from each division dropping down.

FA Women’s National League Cup

The 2025/26 season will also see a change to the format of the FA Women’s National League Cup, with the introduction of a group stage and entry of Professional Game Academy sides, who last season competed in the Plate competition for the first time, with the aim of providing more competitive playing opportunities for younger players.

Teams will initially be drawn into 22 groups of four teams, from which the 22 group winners and 10 best runners-up will advance to the Cup knockout stages. The other 12 runners-up and 20 best third-placed teams will advance to the Plate knockout stages. From there, both the Cup and the Plate will hold four knockout rounds before the final.