won the FA WSL 2 in 2014 For the 2014 season, the
FA Women's Super League was expanded to create a second division with nine new teams added and one team being relegated from the WSL 1. WSL 1 remained as eight teams, with one new team inserted, with the WSL 2 having ten teams. The new WSL 1 licence was awarded to
Manchester City in 2014.
Doncaster Rovers Belles were relegated to WSL 2, with nine new licences awarded to
London Bees,
Durham,
Aston Villa,
Millwall Lionesses,
Yeovil Town,
Reading,
Sunderland,
Watford, and
Oxford United. Doncaster Belles appealed against their demotion, but were unsuccessful. In December 2014, the FA WSL announced a two-year plan to expand WSL 1 from an eight to ten-team league. Two teams would be promoted from WSL 2, while one team would be relegated to WSL 2. Also, for the first time, a team would earn promotion to WSL 2 from the
Women's Premier League (now National League), effectively connecting the WSL to the rest of the
English women's football pyramid. This left WSL 1 with nine teams and WSL 2 with ten teams for the
2016 season, and with the process repeated the following year, both WSL 1 and WSL 2 consisted of ten teams each for the
2017–18 season. FA WSL 2 was renamed the Women's Championship prior to the
2018–19 season. In May 2020 the Championship season was halted due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 the league was renamed to simply the Women's Championship, with the FA part being dropped. In November 2023, it was announced that all 24 Women's Super League and Women's Championship clubs had unanimously agreed to form a new organisation to run the women's professional game in England, taking over from the FA. The organization is called NewCo, and Nikki Doucet has been named CEO. From the
2024–25 season, the company was known as the Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL). On ,
Newcastle United W.F.C. and
Sunderland A.F.C Women set a new attendance record of 38,502 in the Women's Championship in their second meeting in the league, a
Tyne-Wear derby match played at
St James' Park in
Newcastle. The previous record had been an attendance of 15,387 set in 2024 in the reverse fixture in the same season. ==Finances==