, Chelsea's home ground during the inaugural
2011 WSL season Earlier unofficial team In the early 1970s, an unofficial Chelsea Ladies F.C. was formed soon after
The Football Association had lifted its 50-year ban on women's football. Under the management of John Martin, they beat
Millwall Lionesses to win the 1974 London Women's Football Challenge Cup in a season when they did a league and cup double. They repeated the feat the following season. Although more of a supporters team rather than an official representative of
Chelsea F.C., the club's president at the time was
John Hollins, who was a long-time Chelsea player.
Establishment and promotion (1992–2005) Chelsea Ladies Football Club was formed in 1992 after supporters of Chelsea F.C. expressed desire for a women's side.
Tony Farmer, a longtime Chelsea supporter who became interested in women's football when his girlfriend Val Lightfoot joined
Crystal Palace, wrote a letter to Chelsea F.C. to propose adding a women's side. Upon approval, Farmer became the club's first manager, lobbied for it to be promoted in men's match programmes, and began recruiting youth players to the club, including
Casey Stoney and
Fara Williams as 12-year-olds in 1994 and 1996, respectively. and in 2004–05 Chelsea won promotion to the
Premier League National Division. The club has participated at the top level ever since. They finished bottom of the league that season under
Shaun Gore, but won a promotion/relegation play-off against
Northern Division runners-up
Liverpool 4–1 on
aggregate to stay in the Premier League National Division. During the season the club had been linked with a
transfer bid for North American star players
Tiffeny Milbrett and
Christine Sinclair. After an eighth-place finish in 2006–07, Gore drafted in
England players
Siobhan Chamberlain, Casey Stoney and
Eniola Aluko that summer. American
World Cup winner
Lorrie Fair, regarded as one of the best midfielders in the women's game, joined in January as Chelsea finished 2007–08 in fifth position. Chelsea Ladies introduced a new manager for the 2008–09 season, former
Arsenal Ladies reserve team coach Steve Jones. On 2 July 2008 Chelsea surprisingly signed
Lianne Sanderson and
Anita Asante from Arsenal Ladies, in addition to veteran
Mary Phillip. Then Arsenal Ladies manager
Vic Akers criticised his former players as disrespectful, Aluko and Asante left for the new
WPS in March 2009, while Fair missed the whole campaign with a cruciate ligament injury sustained in May 2008. Jones departed as manager in January 2009, leaving Stoney to act as
player/manager. A further blow arrived when Sanderson left for the 2010 WPS season.
Women's Super League (2011–present) win in 2020 The club bid successfully to be one of eight founding teams in the
FA Women's Super League (WSL) in March 2011. On 13 April 2011, the first-ever WSL fixture was played — at
Imperial Fields, Chelsea's home ground — between them and Arsenal, which they lost 1–0. Beard led the club to the
Women's FA Cup final for the first time in
2012, but Chelsea were eventually beaten by
Birmingham City on a
penalty shootout after twice taking the lead in a 2–2 draw. In July 2012, Matt Beard resigned as manager after three years in the post. Former assistant at Arsenal,
Emma Hayes, was brought in as manager in 2012, one of the first female managers in the WSL. In Hayes's first season in charge, Chelsea, who were still a part-time professional club, The following season, they finished second from the bottom. The 2014 season was successful for Chelsea, as they finished second in the WSL behind Liverpool on goal difference, after eight wins, two draws and four losses. A final day win would have clinched them the league title, but they lost 2–1 away to
Manchester City. Their second-place finish meant that they qualified for the
UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time in the club's history. They also reached the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and the
League Cup, where they lost to both eventual winners, Arsenal and Manchester City, respectively. In 2015, it was announced that many of Chelsea's players would be becoming full professionals for the first time. On 1 August 2015, Chelsea won their first ever
Women's FA Cup. They beat
Notts County Ladies at
Wembley Stadium.
Ji So-yun scored the only goal of the game and Eniola Aluko won the player of the match award. The team then beat
Sunderland 4–0 in October 2015 to secure the FA WSL title and a League and Cup
double. Chelsea repeated that feat in the
2017–18 season, winning another FA WSL and Women's FA Cup double; in the same season, the team also reached the
semi-finals of the UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time. On 23 May 2018, the club rebranded as Chelsea Football Club Women. in 2023 Chelsea were awarded the
2019–20 WSL title on a
points-per-game basis after the season had to be abruptly terminated due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The club was unbeaten at the time. Chelsea began the
2020–21 season by winning their first ever
FA Community Shield, against Manchester City. The season also saw them win their second consecutive League Cup, winning 6–0 against
Bristol City. Chelsea and manager Hayes won their fourth WSL title, the most by any WSL team at the time, by two points on the final day of the
2020–21 FA WSL season with a 5–0 victory over
Reading. Chelsea broke the record for most points in a season (57) and tied the record for most wins in a season (18). In addition, they became just the third team to defend the League title after Liverpool and Arsenal. Given their remarkable performances over the season, Suzanne Wrack of
The Guardian stated that Chelsea was "one of the best women's teams to ever play in England's top flight". On 16 May 2021, Chelsea, on course for a
quadruple, lost
4–0 to
Barcelona in their first-ever Champions League final appearance. On 5 December 2021, Chelsea won the delayed
2020–21 FA Cup, beating the league leaders Arsenal 3–0 in a dominant display with goals from Kirby and two from Kerr, winning their first domestic treble. Chelsea successfully retained the WSL title during the
2021–22,
2022–23 (with both seasons also retaining the FA Cup) as well as the
2023–24 seasons, the latter of which was the club's last season under manager Emma Hayes as she left the club at the end of the season to become the manager of the
United States women's national team. She was replaced by
Sonia Bompastor from the
2024–25 season, who was previously at
Lyon. In her first season, Bompastor led Chelsea to a domestic treble as the club remained unbeaten in all three domestic competitions, and finished the WSL season with a record-breaking 60 points for a sixth consecutive title. == Ownership ==